A Time to Remember
by Cherenmay
Summary: Memories haunt a young witch as she desperately fights to forget her horrible past. But things only get worse as her fears come true and there's only one person she can count on to help her overcome the past. Please read and review!
1. A Surprise Assignment

All right, hello there everyone who decided to read this. Just a little beginning note, this is the first fanfic I've written for people to read. So there are likely to be screw ups, so just tell me about them. Anyway, enjoy!  
  
Oh, and by the way, the name Persephone is pronounced Per-sif-oh-nee  
  
Disclaimer: no matter how much I wish it, not one little bit of Harry Potter belongs to me, all to J.K. Rowling  
  
Ok, continue!  
  
A Time to Remember  
  
Chapter 1  
  
A Surprise Assignment  
  
A girl with striking blond hair was sitting beneath a tree in the middle of a huge park with a huge book in her lap that she had no intention of opening. She was looking around at the people passing by with tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat. Everything she had come to know in her life was changing. She wiped a hand to her eyes and began to study the scenery for she knew that it was unlikely that she'd ever see the area again.  
  
"Pers?" a voice called from a baseball field bleacher seat. "Come on! We've got a half hour before we leave!"  
  
The girl stood and wiped her pants free of leaves and dirt, letting the book slip from her lap. Pushing a stray lock of hair from her pale round face, she smiled down at it. The words Hogwarts, A History gleamed back up at her in bright, new golden letters. She lifted it carefully and ran to catch up with the woman who had called, her mother, over beside the baseball field.  
  
A middle aged Japanese woman (or rather, half Japanese) was standing next to a set of bleachers wearing strange flowing robes that were reminiscent of a Stevie Nicks fashion craze. She was waiting for the girl anxiously. Her hands were stretched out in her daughter's direction and a small baggie of fine powder was visible from within her robes' inner pocket.  
  
"Hurry up, hon; I've got an appointment in London in 45 minutes! The Minister himself is to meet me in person and we still need to pack up all of your school things. Your father's about to pop a brain vessel or something, your grandmother's making that weird disapproving clicking noise, your brother is frantic, and even your sister can't keep quiet. I'm telling you, Pers, if we don't get out of the house in the next twenty minutes I fear for the entire family's well-being." Her voice was light- hearted and joking, but her eyes were uncertain as to whether she had just jinxed her family unwittingly.  
  
The girl, or Pers, rolled her eyes good-naturedly and fell into step beside her mother. "Mom, do we really have to go all the way to England? Can't we stay here? It's going to be so different there and I won't have any friends. What if this new school is even worse than the one I'm at now? It would probably be safer just to stay here." She babbled her pleas to her mother who was having trouble stifling her smile.  
  
"I'm sorry, hon, but we can't leave you here alone." Her mother's eyes twinkled merrily at her. "You're not even of Wizarding age, let alone Muggle age."  
  
Pers stuttered over her words as she fumbled for an answer. "B-but - I-I could, you know, I could--" an idea hit her. "I could stay with my sister and her husband!"  
  
Now her mother's good humor was ending and her tone was sharper. "Persephone McCain! You can't stay with them! Your sister's having a hard enough time with her own child; she doesn't need the double burden of a kid sister. Besides, the Ministry asked me to make sure you came." She continued before letting her daughter question. "Why, I don't know, but orders are orders."  
  
The girl sighed and resigned herself to the answer, not because she wanted to, but because her mother gave her one of those "drop it" looks. So, instead of talking, she focused her energy into burning the image of the Lincoln Park sign into her brain. Parks on Puget Sound were undoubtedly rare in England.  
  
Their house was very close to the park, so the two hardly had a walk in front of them and within the half hour the whole family was ready to go. All of the luggage was stacked around an unnaturally large fireplace beside the departing family. Persephone's father, Miles, was painstakingly starting a fire the Muggle way as his family said their goodbyes.  
  
"Oh, goodbye, Pers," Persephone's elder sister, Io, said in her quiet voice as she hugged the girl. "Don't forget to send an owl by every now and again."  
  
"And by me, too," her grandmother said tearfully. Persephone couldn't help but think about how her grandmother always ended up crying the minute anyone even thought of saying good bye.  
  
"Oh, you two," she said to them in fake disdain. "You talk as though I'm not coming back! Well, you'll see, in a couple weeks Mom and Dad will be begging the London Ministry to send them back here, to good old Seattle." But in her heart of hearts, Persephone had the sinking feeling that the next time she saw Seattle (that is, if she ever did) wouldn't be for many, many years.  
  
The two women smiled shakily, but Persephone could see in their eyes that they knew the same as she did.  
  
"HA!" The sound brought them all out of their silent farewells.  
  
"Oh, Miles!" Persephone's mother cried, glaring at her triumphant husband who now sat beside a roaring fire. "You really are a mystery!"  
  
He looked up at his tearful family in confusion, as though his outburst could have in no way disrupted the highly sentimental moment they had been sharing. "What?"  
  
Mrs. McCain rolled her eyes dramatically. Despite her sadness, Persephone found it difficult to suppress her giggles.  
  
"Well," her mother said after about five more minutes of tears and goodbyes, "I suppose the time has come. Come along, Archie, you first."  
  
Persephone's young brother Archie, short for Narcissus (of all things) approached his mother. The woman took the packet of powder from her pocket and put a fair amount of it into the boy's open palm. He smiled, stepped into the fireplace, threw down the powder, yelled in a loud voice "London- Ministry of Magic!" and disappeared in an eruption of green flames. Next went Persephone's father with the luggage. Then her mother turned to her.  
  
"Your turn, Pers," she said coldly, almost daring her daughter to start up a new plea to stay home in Seattle, but the girl kept quiet. She took the offered powder and followed the same steps as both her brother and father, but took a moment to look at the sad and smiling faces of her family in the room that had once been her home's sitting room. She sighed one last time in defeat, threw down the powder, cried out her destination, and was engulfed by towering neon green flames.  
  
She whooshed out of the fireplace on the other side. After cracking her head hard on the floor, she stopped sliding. She stood shakily with a hand tentatively feeling the back of her head. She cursed softly under her breath as she felt a bump beginning to form. Slowly, she began to walk over to her brother and father, who were laughing so hard that their faces were red.  
  
"Ha ha. Very funny," she said to them sarcastically. "It's not like you've never made a less than graceful entrance out of Floo." She looked to her father. "I remember the time you Flooed to the wrong grate and ended up getting conked on the head with an iron poker by some poor old witch who you nearly scared to death." Her father stopped mid-laugh. She looked at him triumphantly. "Take that."  
  
Just then, before Persephone could terrorize her brother with his "getting stuck in the firewood" story, her mother stepped from the fireplace looking remarkable clean and absolutely none the worse for wear. It irked Persephone that her mother could get caught in a Tornado and come out of it looking as though she had just come from the salon.  
  
So, to counteract her mother's annoyingly fresh appearance after the dirty ordeal, Persephone closed her eyes and created the image of a face in her mind. It took a lot of concentration to make the Change, but she diligently focused on each feature: the high sloping forehead, the pale blemish free skin, the soft and shining chestnut curls, the wide deep brown, almost black eyes. It was the face of a Spanish beauty. Then, in the split second that her mind was totally and completely focused, she felt the Change. She opened her eyes and smiled a new smile that opened up her entire face and shook her head to make her soft, new curls bounce becomingly. You see, Persephone was a. Metamorphagus.  
  
Her mother looked at her for a moment, didn't recognize her, and then scowled as the realization struck her. "Really, Persephone, must you do that at every conceivable opportunity?"  
  
Persephone turned to her mother, smiling impishly. "Really, I don't have the faintest idea what you mean, Mother dearest." Her voice was dripping with amusement and she pretended she didn't know what her mother meant. This caused her brother and father to begin laughing again and her mother to roll her eyes.  
  
"Please, Persephone," she said in defeat, "no phoniness right now, OK? We really must be on our way."  
  
Without waiting for a reply, she pulled out her wand from within her robes and levitated the luggage before her with an impatient "Wingardium Leviosa." Then, with another swift incantation, she had them follow her through a door which the rest of the family had yet to notice. But they quickly followed her without hesitation.  
  
The door led out into a huge hall with a fountain in the middle of it. The fountain contained golden statues of a wizard, a witch, a centaur, and a house elf. If her mother hadn't been rushing them all, Persephone would have stopped to watch it in fascination, but as it was, she could barely catch a passing glance. People were walking all over the hall talking to each other amiably, only stopping to curiously glance at Persephone and her family. 'These must be London Ministry officials,' Persephone thought to herself as she watched them continue on their way. While they went straight through a large set of golden double doors, Persephone's mother led them to a much smaller set of doors that had a desk beside it. Behind the desk sat a portly, balding man reading a newspaper and eating something that resembled a cinnamon bun without all the sticky stuff. He hardly looked up at them as they approached. 'This must be an everyday occurrence for him,' Persephone supposed.  
  
"Wands, please," he said in an obviously bored voice. Persephone's mother and father immediately handed their wands over, and after a bit of encouragement, so did her brother. They all looked at Persephone in exasperation as she desperately searched her robes for her own wand.  
  
"Now, really, I know I had it here," she mumbled as she searched. She could feel her face heat up and knew she was blushing. "I remember I had it back at home. I know it because I used it to pack. I must have-" Then she remembered what she had done with it. "It's in my trunk," she whispered sheepishly. She hadn't expected to need it until she had gotten to their new residence and had packed it up along with the rest of her school things.  
  
"Honestly, Persephone, if it were up to me I would have left you for your grandmother to deal with," her mother said to her as she helped her look through her trunk. Persephone risked a small grin and pulled her wand out of the trunk.  
  
"Here you are." She handed the bored man her wand. He had yet to take his nose out of his newspaper.  
  
One at a time he set each wand on a device that somewhat resembled a scale and grabbed the piece of parchment that came out of the other end. "All right," he said, still completely bored. "This wand came from the boy. 9 inches, ebony, containing dragon heartstring, in use for three years. That right?" Archie nodded vigorously. The man handed him back his wand and stabbed the paper down on a spike that held many other bits of paper. He put another wand on the scale. "This is your wand, ma'am. 10 ½ inches, holly, containing dragon heartstring, been in use for 41 years, right?" Mrs. McCain nodded absently and grabbed her wand from his outstretched hand as he put her little bit of parchment over her son's with his other hand. "All right, sir, this here's yours. 12 inches, dogwood, dragon heartstring, been in use 43 years." Persephone's father nodded the affirmative as the man handed him his wand and pushed down the parchment. "And lastly, little miss, here's yours. 11 inches, willow, containing a - huh, I was expecting dragon heartstring -- a unicorn hair, been in use seven years?" She nodded quickly and snatched her wand back from him, glad to have it where she could see it. "Well, that's all, you lot. You keep your wands and I'll keep the parchment. Off with you now."  
  
They all left with Persephone's mother still levitating the luggage in front of her. After Persephone was sure that they were no longer within earshot of the strange wand man, she turned to her mother. "Well, Mom, I must say that that was definitely weird. What was the point of that?"  
  
"British law," her mother answered absently. "They have to check your wand before letting you by. It is a bit weird, now that you mention it, but you had better get used to it. It's something you'll probably go through for a while unless you become a member of the Ministry. Now, stop asking silly questions and come along. If we don't hurry, we'll be late."  
  
Persephone grumbled a bit at her mother's "silly questions" remark, but seeing as how she had no desire to start a fight with her mother at the time, she kept her mouth shut. She followed her mother down a rather long and plain corridor to strange double doors that resembled the elevator doors that Persephone had seen in old fancy hotels. Her mother pushed a button beside them and impatiently began tapping her foot as she waited for the doors to open. Even Persephone's father knew better than to disturb his wife at this stressful moment. After a few minutes had passed, the doors opened and they all piled in as a few happily chatting witches filed out. The doors closed and her mother said to no one in particular, "This had better go by quickly."  
  
The elevator began to move and even Persephone found herself looking about anxiously. Soon, though, a lofty female voice seemed to appear out of nowhere stating, "Level seven, Department of Magical Games and Sports, incorporating the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters, Official Gobstones Club, and Ludicrous Patents Office." The doors swiftly opened and a few disgruntled looking wizards stepped in, forcing Persephone and her family to be pushed further back. When the doors closed again, Persephone tried to catch bits of their conversation.  
  
"Really, that Bagman fellow sure has some nerve," one terribly intimidating fellow said to his companions sourly. "What right does he have to blame us for the Britain Quidditch team losing?"  
  
"I know, Ben, but he says that if we managed the Floo better, it wouldn't be so 'hard on the poor fellows' health.' Those are his exact words, they are," said a less intimidating, but certainly surly fellow.  
  
The third one, perhaps the most frightening of them all, spoke up. "You're both right, you know. But I hear he had a bet on the game and lost a fair amount of money when the team didn't win. You know what a gambler Bagman is." His voice was surprisingly light-hearted.  
  
The lift doors opened ("Level six, Department of Magical Transport, incorporating the Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office, and Apparition Test Center") and they all walked out, still complaining about that "Bagman fellow." Taking their place was a very old and frail witch who looked as though a stray breeze could have made her fall to pieces.  
  
Unfortunately for Persephone, she didn't talk at all, and therefore the girl couldn't learn anything at all about these British wizards. She had been most interested in the Bagman fellow and had been hoping to hear more about him.  
  
The lift slowed and the voice announced the destination once more. "Level five, Department of International Magical Cooperation, incorporating the International Magical Standards Body, the International Magical Office of Law, and the International Confederation of Wizards, British Seats." The doors opened and Persephone's mother reached forward to hold them open.  
  
"This is us!"  
  
The family made their way past the frail old witch, who smiled at them all with slightly yellowing and crooked teeth as the door closed.  
  
"Come on, now. All of you."  
  
Persephone and her father and brother hurried to catch up with their mother who seemed to have suddenly had the seat of her pants set on fire. She was determinedly passing each and every office that was in the corridor. As they passed, Persephone caught glimpses of huge piles of papers and sounds of frantically scratching quills. It reminded her of a workhouse she had seen in a Muggle movie once.  
  
Finally, after what seemed like 20 minutes of flat-out race walking, Persephone's mother finally stopped. She stopped so abruptly that the rest of her family collided into her and knocked her forward into the levitating luggage. She pitched forward, but somehow managed to keep her balance. She turned around and glared at them. "Really!" she huffed in fury, still staring daggers at them. After a few quick touches on her hair, she knocked on the door that they stood in front of. An anxious and eager voice called out, "Just a moment, please," and the sound of straightening papers and shutting drawers came from behind the door. A few seconds later the door was opened and the whole family found themselves looking into the face of a smiling, young, redheaded man. Mrs. McCain looked at him in surprise for a minute, and then put on a huge smile.  
  
"Minister!" she exclaimed happily and grabbing his hand to shake it forcefully. "It really is a pleasure to meet you after all this time. Although I must say that I am surprised you are so young. I had expected someone older."  
  
The young man looked at the small woman in shock as he tried to take his hand out of hers. "Ah, no, no, I'm not the Minister," he said, as his face turned nearly as red as his hair. "I'm his assistant." Persephone's mother's face fell considerably and she looked a bit embarrassed. "Mr. Fudge is out at the moment, but he should be returning shortly. He is expecting you, I think. You are, um, Mrs." he reached into his pocket for a bit and pulled out a scrap of parchment. "Mrs.Yuriko McCain, are you not?" She nodded. "Ah, then, well, take a seat." He ushered her in.  
  
It was around this time he noticed the rest of the family. He looked up at them in surprise. "And who might you be?" he asked, as he looked over the three family members still standing. Persephone opened her mouth to answer, but her mother got there first.  
  
"They are my family."  
  
The man looked at her. "Oh, yes, well. I suppose you can have a seat, too, then. This way, please." Persephone did her best not to laugh at his ridiculous behavior. He reminded her of a waiter at a restaurant, a bit absent-minded, but a waiter nonetheless.  
  
They all sat down and Mrs. McCain let the luggage down beside the door. The young man had just started to return to his desk when Persephone's mother addressed him. "I'm sorry, but what is your name?"  
  
The young man turned around, instantly red again and began to apologize fiercely. "Oh dear, I'm terribly sorry, I hadn't realized I'd forgotten. Please, do forgive me. I'm Percy Weasley."  
  
"Of course," Persephone's mother said in her dignified work voice. "And if I may introduce my family?" She didn't wait for an answer. "This is my husband, Miles McCain, my son Narcissus-" said son interrupted with a quick "Archie!" Mrs. McCain glared at him, but continued. "Archie, then, and my daughter Persephone."  
  
Young Mr. Weasley shook each of their hands in turn and instead of returning to his desk, took another chair and sat across from them. "Most interesting names your children have, Mrs. McCain," he stated matter-of- factly. "Wherever did you find those?" Mrs. McCain had been about to answer, when Persephone stepped in.  
  
"It was Mom and Dad's love for Grecian myths. All of my siblings have Grecian or Roman names. There's Helen, Paris, Perseus, Europa, Io, Andromeda, and me and Narcissus here." Her brother glared at her and said, "Archie!" once more. Persephone shoved him playfully. "I mean Archie." Her mother sighed from beside her and Persephone almost immediately felt remorse for telling this stranger about her other brothers and sisters.  
  
"Really?" Percy said in awe with wide eyes. "I never thought I'd find a family to rival my own in size. There are nine of us, but there are 10 of you." His eyes showed his confusion. "But where are the rest of your children?"  
  
A simple question. That's what he thought he had asked. Apparently he was wrong. Mrs. McCain took a sharp intake of breath and Mr. McCain put his arm about her shoulders. Archie looked saddened, but Persephone looked deadened. The young man instantly regretted his question. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I hadn't meant to offend."  
  
Persephone stopped his rambling apologies. "It's all right. You see, they were all killed, except for the two of us and my sister Io. She stayed at home because she's married and has a family." His face cringed immediately as he realized what he'd asked earlier but before he could begin his apologies, the door to the office was slammed open. The people inside jumped.  
  
A large heavy set man entered pulled off his lime green bowler from his head and flung it across the room. "Damn Americans!" he yelled as he took off his coat. The family scowled and Percy jumped up. Persephone knew that she was going to have a hard time liking the man after that last outburst.  
  
"S-Sir! You're back! And so soon! What happened?" Percy took the man's coat and hung it on a hook before retrieving the man's hat and doing the same with it. Persephone watched as the heavy man sat at Percy's desk and put his muddy boots up on it, splattering the entire surface. Percy winced, but otherwise did nothing.  
  
"Those damn Americans happened, that's what happened," the man grumbled. "I said I'd meet them out at the Muggle International Airport where they were supposed to get off their flight, but they didn't show. I should've known better than to trust bloody Americans. Flighty little buggers, I'm telling ya. Don't trust 'em as far as you can throw them. Remember that, Weasley."  
  
Mrs. McCain cleared her throat just then, before Percy could answer. The man looked at them in surprise, just noticing they were there. "Minister?" she asked, as she stood.  
  
He looked at her and the rest of the family through narrow eyes. "Yes. Who the devil are you?"  
  
Mrs. McCain smirked and rolled her eyes, much as she would to her husband when he said something amazingly dense. Then, in a calm and dignified voice, she said, "Those 'Damn Americans.'"  
  
He scrambled up surprisingly quickly despite his girth and looked at her in surprise. "Yuriko McCain? Is it you, then?" he asked in disbelief. She glared at him. He quickly regained his composure. "What in bloody hell are you doing here?! You were supposed to meet me at the airport. What do you mean by showing up here and making me wait in a place infested with so many damn Muggles that I could hardly breathe? The plan was to meet there, don't you remember?" Persephone, her brother, and her father watched the exchange with interest, but had no intention of joining in.  
  
"I believe, sir, that you are mistaken," Persephone's mother stated calmly. "The plan was to meet here."  
  
Now the Minister's face was as red as Percy's had been less than five minutes earlier. "IT BLOODY WELL WASN'T!" he cried at the top of his voice. The vein throbbing in his temple looked about to pop.  
  
"It was," Mrs. McCain said, just as calmly as before. "The original plan was to meet in the airport, but you canceled that last minute, as you had a meeting to attend, so you said to just Floo in and meet you in your office." The Minister looked at her with his mouth agape and was about to begin shouting again, when the woman continued. "If you do not believe me, then I can prove it." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment. "Here's the letter you sent to me yesterday. It reads: 'Mrs. Yuriko McCain, the Minister is most sorry to inform you that he must cancel aforementioned meeting at the aforementioned Muggle airport, for he must attend a very important meeting at that time. He wishes that you might meet him in his office on August the 21st at exactly 6 o'clock in the evening (British time). Arrangements can be made from there. Sincerely, Cornelius Fudge Minister of Magic.'" As though she suspected that he had his doubts, she handed him the letter with his own signature on it. He spluttered for a moment, but could find nothing to say. Persephone had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing. Of course, Mrs. McCain was not yet done. She looked at her watch, turned to the Minister, smiled at him sweetly and said, "It seems, sir, that you are late." That time, Persephone couldn't hold it in anymore. She laughed out loud at the look on the Minister's face and immediately covered her mouth once more. The Minister glared at her, but didn't say anything.  
  
"Well, then, Mrs. McCain and family, you have my apologies," he grumbled. His face was still red, but now it was from embarrassment instead of anger. "That other meeting had been canceled and I forgot that I told you to come by my office. It seems, ma'am, that perhaps I was a bit, shall we say, over the line in my statement." This time, instead of just Mrs. McCain, the whole family smirked. He changed gears quickly. 'It seems that the Minister is not one used to apologizing,' Persephone thought. "Now about this meeting, I think we had better go inside my office." He indicated a door behind Percy's desk. "I'll call up a security official to escort your family to your new residence." He turned to Percy. "Weasley, get an escort." The young man complied, and with hardly 20 seconds gone, a middle- aged wizard came in through the office door.  
  
"Now if you'll come with me, Mrs. McCain," the Minister said, opening the door for the woman. Persephone and the rest of her family were about to leave with the security wizard and the luggage when Fudge turned around quickly as though he were forgetting something. "Oh, and you did bring your daughter, didn't you, Mrs. McCain? And is this her? Persephone was her name, correct?"  
  
"Yes, Minister, Persephone is my daughter."  
  
The Minister nodded and gestured to Persephone. "Perhaps it would be better if you joined us now, rather than schedule another meeting. We wouldn't want another misunderstanding as we did today."  
  
Persephone was surprised, to say the least. After an allowing nod from her mother, she left her brother and father and followed Fudge and Percy into his office. As soon as the door was closed, Fudge motioned for them to sit down in a chair as he took his own behind his desk.  
  
"Now," he began, his hands folded over his desk. "I suppose you are wondering why I should like to talk to you, but you see; you are entering your seventh year of school and will be attending Hogwarts, correct?" Persephone nodded carefully. "Yes, good. And you'll be seventeen soon, right? On the seventh of September, unless I am much mistaken." Again, she nodded. "Well, I'm assuming that you know of You-Know-Who? Of course you do. Everyone does." She shook her head. 'Who is You-Know-Who?' she thought to herself. "You don't? Damn. This does mean I'll have to explain a bit more. Well, you see, You-Know-Who is this, well, Dark wizard. He believes that the only wizards worth being around are those of pureblood descent. He believes that all those of Muggle descent are inferior and should be, well, for lack of a better word, disposed of. For years he has terrorized Muggleborns and those who befriend and protect Muggleborns. He has killed numerous men, women, and innocent children. In the past few years he has been rising to power once again. His focus of late has been on this one boy, a boy by the name of Harry Potter. You do know who Harry Potter is, don't you?" She vaguely remembered the name from a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson she had had at her old school. She tried to remember exactly what he had done.  
  
"He's the boy who lived, isn't he? The one who this wizard couldn't kill, right? I forget what the wizard's name was, though. It started with a 'V' I think. Sort of like Vold -" Fudge cut her off.  
  
"Yes, yes, that's him. You-Know-Who couldn't kill him that one time, but now he's almost entirely powerful again and he wants to be rid of the boy once and for all. Well, over the past, what, six years, Potter's had to face You-Know-Who six times in some form or other. And every time the boy has somehow escaped, but each year it was almost as though he were trying harder and harder to find You-Know-Who. And, well, he's beginning his seventh year this year as well, and we, the Ministry, would really appreciate knowing what he was up to, and, well,--" Persephone interrupted him.  
  
"You want me to be your spy, don't you? You want me to keep an eye on him and inform you of his doings. Sort of keep him in line, right?"  
  
Fudge sighed in relief. Persephone had a fleeting suspicion that he had not really wanted to ask her outright to do that. "Yes, yes, that's right. I'd like you to befriend him and just watch him for us all. So he doesn't get into any unwanted trouble, you know. What do you say?" The Minister had taken on a companionable tone, thinking he had just tricked her into doing what he wanted.  
  
"No." Her reply was blunt and frank.  
  
"No?" Fudge questioned.  
  
"Is there an echo in here? Don't you understand the word?" She was starting to get irritated with him.  
  
His eyes narrowed. "Oh, I understand it, all right. But why do you say no? The Ministry is willing to pay you for it, not much, mind you, but enough. You see, the Ministry really doesn't want to have to deal with any surprises this year."  
  
Now Persephone was really starting to get mad. "The Ministry doesn't want to deal with it or you don't want to deal with it? Come on, Fudge, who do you think you're kidding?" He was about to speak, but she started up again. "It's a despicable idea, you know. You want me to make nice with someone I don't know so that I can keep you in the light and on top of things. You do know that that means that one day he'll find out and then I'll be in trouble, don't you? Or were you just planning on not mentioning that little bit of information? Really, I'd like to make my own friends for my own reasons, thank you."  
  
Persephone could see the color drain from his face and then come back in full force. "Why you little - Here I try to be nice and offer you a job. Well, like it or not, you'll do it. I have persuasive ways. Your mother's job isn't really a necessary one here, you know. We could always send you back to where you came from. Seattle, Washington, wasn't it? I'm sure they'd welcome your mother back with open arms, right?"  
  
Persephone thought about this. It wasn't true that they'd take her back, and both she and Fudge knew it. Her mother had been on the verge of being laid off due to budget cuts and that would have cut off the family's income. No matter how much Persephone would have loved to go home, she knew it would ruin her family life. She looked around to see if her mother had heard Fudge threaten her job, but she was chatting animatedly with Percy over by the door and was oblivious to all that had passed between her daughter and the Minister of the London Ministry of Magic. Persephone sighed in defeat and turned back to Fudge. "You win, I'll do it. But I'd like you to know - You really are snake-like, did you know?"  
  
Then, surprisingly, he smiled at her. "I know. I was in Slytherin during my school years."  
  
She had no idea what a Slytherin was, but she stood immediately and stormed out of the office. She heard Percy excuse himself and follow her out. He caught her by the wrist before she could open the door out into the corridor.  
  
"Wait, will you?" he said anxiously. "I'm supposed to take you home, seeing as you don't know where it is."  
  
She sighed. These Ministry people were really starting to get on her nerves. "So take me already."  
  
"All right, just a moment, though. I've got to grab my cloak." After grabbing aforementioned cloak, he took her out into the corridors.  
  
He looked at her for a moment before deciding to speak to her. Taking a deep breath, he said warily, "So, what was all that about?"  
  
She sneered in a most Snape-like way. At least, that's what she would have thought if she had known who Snape was. "Oh, absolutely nothing. Just a surprise assignment."  
  
All right, so how was that for a first try? Well, hoped you liked it. I'm going to try and get at least one chapter up a week and they will probably not all be this long. Well, you know what to do! Review! 


	2. A Conversation with the Weasleys

Well, here it is, another chapter. Well, whoever reads this, I hope you like it. Oh, and for the disclaimer, you should know that  
  
Chapter 2  
  
A Conversation with the Weasleys  
  
"A surprise assignment?" he repeated.  
  
She made a sound that could only be identified as a growl. "Yes, a surprise assignment! God! What is it with you Ministry people and repeating everything that someone says?!"  
  
For a moment, all he could do was stare at her. "What are you talking about?" She turned to him and took into account his look of complete and utter confusion. She sighed.  
  
"Never mind, Percy, just get me out of here."  
  
Still confused, he did the only thing he could without thinking; he obeyed. For Percy, obeying orders was second nature. Someone tells him to do something, he does it. He used to wonder why he never thought of saying no, but he usually came to the same conclusion. It was just easier to do what people wanted you to than to risk fighting and wasting a lot of precious time trying to come to an agreement.  
  
"This way," he said to her, grabbing her elbow and steering her in a different direction. She was thinking about protesting, but had second thoughts. Why did it matter where they were going anyway? Besides, if she left him, then she would be lost. So she let herself be steered around various cubicles and busy looking wizards.  
  
Finally they stopped in an empty cubicle. "Why did we stop?" Persephone asked irritably.  
  
"Shh." he whispered. "It's an office secret. Most people really don't like having to sit in that damn lift for so long, so a lot of them apparate home from here. It's a lot quicker."  
  
"Apparate!?" she cried out, forgetting his telling her to be quiet. "But I can't apparate!"  
  
He rolled his eyes at her and she wondered whether he had picked it up from her mother. "You don't have to. I can. Tandem Apparating isn't that much more difficult. I've done it tons of times. Don't worry about it."  
  
Again, she had been about to protest when all of the sudden he did one of the very few things she hadn't expected. He wrapped both of his unnaturally long arms around her. She had been about to scream for help when she found that she was no longer touching the ground.  
  
The sensation of apparating was strangely similar to traveling by Floo. There was that same feeling of wild abandon and the same nauseating twists and turns. The only difference was that the smell of soot and burning wood was absent. There was only air, herself, and Percy.  
  
Then, as soon as the sensation had begun, it stopped. She found herself standing on a hill in the middle of nowhere with Percy's arms around her. She immediately pushed herself free and glared at him before even thinking about where they were.  
  
"What the hell was that about?!" she screamed at him, hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. She had half a mind to Change herself into one of those surly wizards she had seen in the lift earlier just to frighten him, but stopped herself as soon as he began to talk.  
  
"Well, I had to be holding onto you securely, or I could have lost you during the apparition. Or I might have splinched you." He was grinning at her sheepishly and shrugging. "Besides, if I had told you I had to hold you, I had the feeling that you would have run off and gotten me fired for sexual harassment." She blushed fiercely because she knew that that was exactly what she would have done.  
  
Sighing again, she looked up at him. It was then that she finally realized how much taller than her he was. Shaking off that thought, she began to speak. "All right, then, I forgive you, but next time, no matter what you think I will do, tell me before you do something like that. I practically had a heart attack." She looked around at her surroundings. "By the way, where are we?"  
  
He smiled and rolled his eyes again. Now she was sure he had picked it up from her mother. "We're on Stoatshead Hill. It's nowhere near where you'll be living, but I have to stop at the Burrow to pick up some things and get a shopping list from my mother. She hates grocery shopping with a passion, so I do it for her when I'm in London and have the time."  
  
"What's the Burrow?" Persephone asked with her natural curiosity as he began leading her down the hill to a dirt road.  
  
"My home," he answered simply. "The whole family lives there, except for Bill and Charlie. They're usually away at work too often to come home much, but they're there now on holiday. I expect Harry and Hermione are there as well. They usually are over the last few weeks of the summer."  
  
She stared at him. "H-Harry Potter?" she asked, almost fearing the answer.  
  
He looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Heard of him, have you? I wouldn't be surprised. He is pretty famous. And yes, it's him. He's best friends with my youngest brother Ronald. I think you're about their ages. You're going into the seventh year, right?"  
  
She nodded dumbly. "Who's Hermione?"  
  
He smiled. "A girl of my own spirit. You'll like her. She's terribly smart. Head Girl this year, unless I'm much mistaken. She's nice and really good friends with Harry and Ron. I daresay you'll find something in common with her."  
  
"Oh," she said, for lack of anything better to say.  
  
He turned to her, still walking down the road. "You know, I was wondering; why did you and your family come here? Just for your mother's job?"  
  
She nodded. "She's lucky, really, that she got transferred. Money's pretty slim in the American Ministry of Magic. She was about to get laid off because of it. We're really a whole lot better off here," she finished glumly.  
  
"You don't seem too happy about the arrangements, Miss McCain," he stated.  
  
"You got that right, Percy." She wanted to get off the subject and was desperate for any excuse she could get to change it. Then she remembered her Hogwarts book in her trunk. "Percy? Could you tell me about Hogwarts?"  
  
"Could I tell you about Hogwarts? Sure, what do you want to know? There are too many things to tell, really, but I can tell you a bit."  
  
She thought about what she knew and what she didn't. She found out she only knew that it was a castle. "Who are the teachers there?"  
  
He shrugged. "Depends on the classes you're taking."  
  
"Oh." She remembered her timetable in her pocket. "Oh! Here, my schedule." She handed him the slightly crumpled piece of parchment.  
  
He stared at it for a few minutes before handing it back. "Do you want the encyclopedia or condensed version?" he asked her.  
  
She looked at him like he had gone mad. "What?"  
  
He sighed. "Do you want details or just the basic picture?"  
  
"Oh." She felt immediately stupid and blushed a bright crimson. "Details, please."  
  
He smirked at her which made her feel even more stupid. "Your first class, unfortunately for you, is Double Potions with the Slytherins. ('Ah-ha!' she thought excitedly. 'Slytherin is a House name! So that's what Fudge was in. Interesting') You know, it's strange really, that they immediately put you in Gryffindor. Usually you have to be sorted first. How'd you manage that trick?" He asked her, clearly interested.  
  
"Oh, well, at my old school we were sorted into houses as well, but with different names of course. Grandma said that all the founders of my school used to go to Hogwarts when they were young and that they merely changed a few names in my school so that it is as close to being Hogwarts as possible. There was Benton House, Olivier House, Aravard House, or Rockwell House. I was in Rockwell, and my Grandma, who went to Hogwarts when she lived here in England, says that it's a lot like Gryffindor, so she simply wrote to the Headmaster and had him put me in Gryffindor. It was simple, really."  
  
He took this in with interest then went immediately back to his explanations. "Well, Professor Snape is the Potions Master. He is a most disagreeable fellow, if you ask me, but he is unarguably knowledgeable. Some would go so far as to call him a 'slimy git,' quoting my brother Ron, and I suppose that it's true from a certain point of view. Still, everyone knows it's the Dark Arts position he fancies. He's been after that job for years. Your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Professor Iridian. I never had her, but she's been holding the position for two years, which is longer than anyone for at least half a decade. I hear she's fairly young, around thirty I suppose, and is pretty up to snuff in her teaching skill. Ron's said that she's taught them more useful things than all the previous teachers combined. Except, perhaps, for Lupin." He continued on about her Divination Professor, her Herbology Professor, her Arithmancy Professor, her Care of Magical Creatures Professor, her Transfiguration Professor, her Astronomy Professor, and her Charms Professor. Persephone was surprised at how much she was looking forward to meeting them all, even the unlikable Professor Snape. She had been about to ask even more questions, but saw that they had nearly reached what she immediately recognized as the Burrow.  
  
"Is that the Burrow?" she heard herself ask Percy in a tone of voice that could only be called awe.  
  
He smiled at the higgledy-piggeldy house affectionately. "Yes, yes it is." He looked at the expression on her face and laughed. "Come on, then. Mum will be so excited to meet you. She's heard a lot about you."  
  
Persephone turned to him in confusion. "Heard about me? But how could she? I've only just gotten here?"  
  
He shifted on his feet uncomfortably before coming up with an answer. "Well, I-I told her that an American Ministry worker was being transferred and that she was bringing along a daughter around Ron's age. I daresay that she'll try to set you up with either him or Harry before the year is over. She has her heart set on finding a nice girl for one of them. Rather sad, actually, as she tends to get a bit.shall we say, preoccupied with it."  
  
Persephone smirked in good humor and followed Percy into the house. The first thing he did after opening the door into a very mismatched and home-y kitchen was yell. "Mum! I'm here!"  
  
As if on cue, a stampede seemed to start at the top of the stairs and only stopped when what must have been the entire household had reached the bottom. 10 people stood in a group at the bottom of the stairs; all except two had flaming red hair that looked exactly like Percy's. They looked at Persephone (who happened to be hiding behind Percy as she had been, let us say, surprised by their sudden arrival) for a moment with interest, and then began welcoming Percy forcefully.  
  
"Oh, Percy, I was wondering when you would come up. I do have a list for you, you know. Here let me get it." The woman who spoke could only be Mrs. Weasley, Persephone supposed, as she looked curiously at the plump woman.  
  
"So, Percy, how was the Minister today?" a tall and balding man asked companionably. "In another of his moods, I suppose."  
  
Before Percy could answer, it was as though a storm of young people had fallen upon him and the nervous girl. It was hard to understand a word that any of them said, but Persephone picked up something that sounded like ".workaholic?" ".really, Perc, it's just." "Don't know how." ".please? Oh, come on!" It made absolutely no sense to Persephone, but Percy seemed to be able to follow everyone and answer them to boot.  
  
"I am NOT a workaholic for your information, Bill. And, really, Ron, you should be able to figure out that essay on your own. It's not that difficult. Charlie, you just have to turn the knob around a bit before it'll open. And, no, Ginny, I can't play chess with you. I've got to take Persephone here home. Perhaps some other time."  
  
It was then that all the eyes fell back on Persephone. She shrunk under their gaze and pulled herself a little bit more behind Percy, who she seemed to think of as a sort of wall that would protect her from all their stares. Two of the boys who looked uncannily alike smirked at her knowingly. 'They must be twins,' she thought to herself.  
  
"'Persephone,' is it?" one laughed at her and Percy.  
  
"Taking her home, are you then?" the other sneered.  
  
They looked at each other briefly, nodded, and began to yell at the top of their voices in singsong, "Percy's got a girlfriend, Percy's got a girlfriend, Percy's got a girlfriend!"  
  
Persephone blushed a bright tomato color and opened her mouth to protest, but another wave of talking broke out and her voice was quickly drowned out.  
  
"Oh, really, Percy, that's wonderful," said Mrs. Weasley happily. She came over to Persephone and pulled her into a big hug. "Welcome to the family, dear. I only wished we could have met you earlier."  
  
Percy looked over to his mother, his face even more red than Persephone's. "No, Mum, she's not my girlfriend. She's the daughter of that American Ministry official I was telling you about. She's only just arrived. I'm just on my way taking her home, but I thought that I might as well get done with your shopping while I'm in London, so here I am. Oh, and her name's Persephone McCain. She's in your year, Ron," he finished as he turned to his brother.  
  
Now it was Mrs. Weasley's turn to make her entire face red. "Oh, of course," she said sheepishly as she released Persephone. "So sorry, dear. I just got so excited. Ever since Percy's relationship with Penelope Clearwater ended I've been desperately trying to get him someone else. I thought perhaps he had done it for himself." She laughed. "You can see how anxious I am to have grandchildren." She held up her forefinger light heartedly. Persephone thought that it might have been her imagination, but Percy paled considerably and coughed uncomfortably.  
  
The brother who Percy had called Charlie came up behind Percy and clapped him on the shoulder. "Tough luck, there, Perc. Now you're the one she wants grandkids from." He laughed.  
  
Mrs. Weasley turned on Charlie then. "Oh, don't you say that, Charlie. You ought to find some nice girl and settle down before too long." The rest of the family laughed at the shocked expression on Charlie's face.  
  
"Um, Mrs. Weasley?" Persephone interrupted before the storm of chattering could start up again. "Do you suppose that I could figure out all the names and everything? No offense, or anything, I just feel a smidgeon left out." She blushed as she talked, realizing how stupid she sounded.  
  
Mrs. Weasley hugged her tightly again. "Oh, you poor dear. This must all be terribly confusing for you. And so soon after arriving. Very well, dear. That one over there who decided he could be so cruel to Percy just a moment ago is Charlie." She pointed to a jolly young man with short red hair, a crooked smile, and a lot of scars and burns. "He usually works in Romania with dragons, but he's come all the way home to England for a holiday. That one over there is Bill." She pointed to a roguishly handsome tall and lanky fellow with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail and a fang earring dangling from one ear. "He's usually off in Egypt breaking curses and things for Gringotts, but he's home for a holiday, too." She looked at her son and sighed. "Really, Bill, if you would just let me cut -"  
  
He cut her off with a grimace. "No, Mum." He said it with an air that portrayed the event as a common occurrence.  
  
Mrs. Weasley sighed again, but continued introducing people. "And that one over there is my husband, Arthur. He works for the Ministry, too. In the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. This little blighter here," she pointed to a very tall and very skinny boy of about 17 or 18, "is Ron. He's in your year, dear." She eyed Ron pointedly, then Persephone, then Ron again. Persephone couldn't help but remember Percy saying that Mrs. Weasley would most likely try to set her up with either Ron or Harry. Persephone rolled her eyes like her mother, a trait she had inherited.  
  
"Oh, and the little girl over there is my little Ginny." The girl who was called Ginny sighed and shook her head at her mother's babying. Persephone couldn't much blame her. It reminded her of her mother when Archie was being talked to because he was the only boy. "She's a year behind you, dear. Then there are these two devils, Fred and George. They own a joke shop in Hogsmeade called Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Dreadful tricks they sell, really." The twins laughed and nudged each other in a suspicious way. Persephone already had a feeling that she was going to get along with them just wonderfully. "These two aren't mine; they're friends of Ron's. Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. They're in your year, as well." Persephone had a feeling that Mrs. Weasley was still talking, but she couldn't hear her. 'So this was the boy who lived,' she thought. 'He doesn't look nearly as intimidating as I thought he would. Why he looks just like any other normal boy.'  
  
"A-are you really the Harry Potter?" she asked breathlessly, interrupting Mrs. Weasley without knowing it. The boy shrugged uncomfortably. 'He doesn't look famous at all,' she thought. 'Quite the contrary really. He sort of looks like, I don't know, a normal person.' For some odd reason, the fact that he looked absolutely normal confused her more than anything.  
  
To prove to her that he was who they said he was, he pulled back his bangs to reveal a lightning bolt scar on one side of his forehead. She looked at it without expression. They all stared at her, wondering why she didn't look at it in awe or amazement.  
  
"Yes, you've got a scar," she said to him slowly, almost as though she didn't expect him to understand English. "What of it?"  
  
Now they all stared at her like she had gone crazy. "Don't you know anything, Persephone?" Mrs. Weasley asked her in amazement. Persephone stared at the woman uncomprehendingly. Then realization struck her.  
  
"Oh, that scar means something, doesn't it?" she asked them. "There's something special about it, right?"  
  
Even Ron was staring at her as though she were incredibly stupid. "Where have you been, Persephone? Don't you know anything about You-Know-Who and Harry?"  
  
She stared at him strangely, trying to make sense of his words and remember who this You-Know-Who character was. "You-Know-Who? Who is You-" she cut herself off mid-sentence. "Oh! You mean Voldemort, right?"  
  
Everyone in the room except for Harry flinched as though she had just accidentally let the 'F' word slip. She looked around at them all in confusion. "What's the matter?"  
  
"Don't-say-that-name!" Ron said to her through clenched teeth. She looked at him strangely.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
Percy held up a hand in a business-like way to keep everyone from saying anything. "Hang on a moment, everyone. You see, she's from the United States and things are different there. She isn't really affected by You- Know-Who. Why, just today, Minister Fudge was explaining it all to her. They aren't as afraid of You-Know-Who in America. She apparently doesn't know anything about your scar, either, Harry."  
  
Mrs. Weasley put a motherly arm over her shoulder and patted her on the head with her other hand. "That's all right, dear. I'm sure things are a lot different here for you." Persephone smiled at her before thinking to herself, 'She has no idea.'  
  
"Well, Percy, I daresay that you are terribly busy today. I'll just nip upstairs for a moment. Can you believe that I left my shopping list up there? And then I'll send you off on your merry way!" The friendly woman hurried back up the stairs.  
  
Persephone turned to Percy and stood up on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "I like your mother," she said. He smiled at her. "I thought you might," he whispered back.  
  
Fred and George of course noticed this little exchange and began to make kissing noises as Charlie tried to hurry them out of the kitchen.  
  
"Bugger off, you two. You're going to make them explode like an overheated water pipe," Charlie said in response to their shining red faces.  
  
Persephone turned to Harry, Hermione, and Ron apologetically. "I'm sorry I made such a fuss. I really don't understand all this British Wizarding stuff yet. It's all a little confusing."  
  
Hermione smiled at her sincerely. "Quite all right. Now, I'm curious, in America they have a completely different Wizarding government, don't they? I mean, you have your own Ministry of Magic and such, don't you? But don't you also have a government that resembles the American Muggle Democracy system? You know, with election dates and voting and all that?"  
  
Persephone stared at her, trying to keep up with all of her rapid fire questioning. Harry laughed and put a hand over her mouth to stem the flow of questions that were shooting out of her mouth. "Come on, Hermione, you don't have to bombard her with questions already. You have all year for that." Then in an undertone, "She's always like that. She couldn't live a day without asking a question if her life depended on it. A regular goldmine of information, that one."  
  
Ron came up beside her with a sorry look on his face. "Sorry about my Mum back there," he said with a small smile. "She's always like that around girls my age, as long as they're not Slytherins."  
  
Persephone smiled at him. "That's exactly what Percy here said." She squeezed his arm without thinking. For some reason, she just found him to be like her anchor around all these new people, although he himself was a new person. "He said that she gets.preoccupied with it."  
  
Now it was Bill's turn to finally join in on the conversation. "'Preoccupied,' he said, did he? 'Bloody obsessed' would have been more appropriate, you know, Perc." He laughed good-naturedly. "She's always trying to set up her boys with some girl or other."  
  
"Yeah," Ginny piped up, pushing a stray lock of thick red hair from her face. "Remember that time poor Charlie had to go out with that utterly horrible girl that Mum met in Flourish and Blotts? I still remember all the blisters and bruises he had on his feet after only that one dance!"  
  
Everyone in the kitchen laughed except Persephone. She felt like an outsider intruding in on an obviously very happy family. She didn't know the stories and couldn't enjoy them as well as the others, but somehow managed to force out a small chuckle.  
  
"Well, if you had to dance with her, then you would have had blisters, too." Charlie came back into the kitchen. He turned to Percy. "I got them locked in the closet, but you know them. They'll probably be out before too long and terrorizing you and your poor lady friend to no end."  
  
"I'm not his lady friend."  
  
"She's not my lady friend."  
  
Both Persephone and Percy said at the same time. This time the entire kitchen erupted into laughter that even Persephone could contribute to.  
  
"And here we are to terrorize without mercy!" said the unmistakable voice of Fred (or was it George?).  
  
"Right you are, brother of mine," said George (or was it Fred?).  
  
Now everyone in the kitchen rolled their eyes. Persephone laughed silently. 'This is what my family would have been like if I had the rest of them,' she thought sadly. 'I'll bet they would all be rolling their eyes at each other non-stop.'  
  
But right before the twins could begin their merciless teasing, Mrs. Weasley came tearing down the stairs. "No you don't, you two. You leave them alone. Besides, Percy is far too old for her. She's still a child. And, besides, they've really got to be going. Your brother is a busy man." She babbled the whole way down. Persephone felt a little angry at being a child, but forgave the woman quickly when she wrapped Persephone in a warm embrace.  
  
"Now you be sure to come by for a visit again soon. I'll send your mother an owl, or perhaps just give a note to Percy or Arthur when they're on their way to the Ministry and see if you could spend the last week of the holidays with us. That way we can show you Diagon Alley and help you get your new school supplies."  
  
"But, I have a little brother and he can't be left at home alone," Persephone interrupted.  
  
"Well, bring him along, too, then," Mrs. Weasley said without missing a beat. "I would really feel so much better about you if you could make friends with someone before school started, and I'm sure that Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione would fill that position admirably." They nodded vigorously, still curious about this American girl. "And we'll take you to the Platform for the train and everything. It will be wonderfully fun. It was a pleasure meeting you, dear. I'll see you soon. Goodbye!"  
  
Persephone hadn't realized it, but the whole while that Mrs. Weasley had been talking, she had been pushing them out the door. Persephone found herself in the middle of their yard beside Percy. They were all watching them expectantly, waiting for them to apparate away. "Oh, and Percy, try to find the Floo Powder on sale!" Mrs. Weasley yelled from the window. "The last time you got it, it was ridiculously overpriced!"  
  
Percy waved to his mother. "Yes, Mum!" He turned to Persephone. "Are you ready?" He opened his arms.  
  
She gave him a look that obviously said 'Thanks for telling me this time,' and stepped right up close to him. He put his arms down around her and Persephone was sure that she heard the twins making kissing noises again before she and Percy apparated away.  
  
Well, please review, and thanks for reading! 


	3. A Nightmare and an Invitation

This is a warning to all who read this chapter: There is a huge murder scene ahead and I know that it gets rather graphic (I had no pleasure in writing it, but it is necessary to the plot line) so now you know too.  
  
Disclaimer: all Harry potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling just so you know (even though I know that you already knew)  
  
Ok, read, and PLEASE review. I could really use them  
  
Chapter 3  
  
A Nightmare and an Invitation  
  
That evening, Persephone found herself mulling over the day's events with the feeling that could only be called relief. She surprisingly found herself happy to be in London even though she had to leave all that she knew behind. She knew that if everyone was only half as nice as the Weasleys were to her, then she would have no problem adjusting. The only thought that made her uncomfortable was her involvement in Minister Fudge's plot about spying on Harry. Putting that memory in the back of her mind, she remembered earlier events.  
  
Percy had been strangely distant with her after they had apparated away from his family. She suspected he was as uncomfortable as she was after his brothers had made the absurd assumption that they were romantically involved. She found herself glancing at him curiously and turning away with a blush when he noticed.  
  
He walked her to a nice old fashioned building that was obviously in a Muggle neighborhood. "We did try to find you a flat in a Wizarding part of town, but you all came on such short notice, that this was all we could come up with," he told her apologetically. 'Flat?' she thought. 'Does he mean an apartment? Or does he mean the street? Oh, British slang is so difficult!'  
  
He stopped at a door that had an intercom panel by the door frame. He pressed the button that read "203" and yelled into the intercom. "Mrs. McCain?!" he cried loudly, causing passing people to stare at him. "Mr. McCain?! Are you there? I've brought your daughter by! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Persephone found herself laughing uncontrollably at his obvious lack of Muggle skills.  
  
"Yes, yes, we're here!" Persephone heard her mother answer. "You really don't have to yell, we can hear you just fine!"  
  
Percy coughed sheepishly. "Yes, well, I'll just bring her up there, shall I?"  
  
He opened the door to the building and led me to a very fancy staircase that went upstairs. We passed two other doors before he stopped at the one that had shiny brass numbers that read "203" beneath a peep-hole. He knocked on it carefully.  
  
The door immediately swung open and Persephone found her mother staring at the two of them, obviously worried out of her wits. "Where have you been?!" she cried at her daughter. "I was just about to call the police! What took you so long?" She noticed Percy for the first time. "Oh, thank you for bringing her home, Percy," she said to him absently. She grabbed her daughter and pulled her into the apartment angrily. Persephone gave Percy an apologetic look as her mother slammed the door in his face.  
  
The woman thrust her daughter down into a plain, but fancy armchair harshly and began her relentless questioning. "Where have you been, Persephone Clymenstra McCain?!" she screamed shrilly. 'Uh-oh,' thought Persephone grimly. 'Middle names. She means business.' "Your father and I have been worried sick! Why didn't you contact us? Why didn't you come straight home? What took you so long? Did he do anything to you? Was there trouble? Answer me now, Persephone!"  
  
Persephone sighed once, and then looked up at her mother. She suddenly understood how Percy could answer all of his siblings at once; it was almost as though her mother were 5 different people at once asking questions. "I've been with Percy, Mom. He had to stop at his house to pick up his mother's shopping list. I didn't try to get in touch with you because we were hardly spending ten minutes at his house. It didn't seem necessary. I didn't come straight home because I didn't know where 'home' was. It took practically no time at all. I didn't even think you were home yet, anyways. No, Mom, he didn't do anything to me except escort me home. And, no, there was absolutely no trouble except what Percy had while using the intercom." She smiled as she remembered. "He doesn't understand many Muggle things, you know."  
  
Her mother scowled at her menacingly as she thought about Persephone's answers. Though she seemed to be satisfied with them, she still looked angry. "Someday, Persephone, you will be the death of me." She sat down heavily in a chair that matched her daughter's and sighed dramatically.  
  
The rest of the evening had passed smoothly enough, and the only conflict was whether they should order out for pizza or Chinese. Persephone spent most of the day in her room that she shared with her little brother and put up numerous pictures, both from the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. She spread her patchwork quilt over the provided bed and lay down upon it as the clock struck the midnight hour.  
  
Her brother and parents had long since gone to bed and fallen asleep, but she found that sleep was avoiding her. She thought it was because she was anxious about starting a new life in a foreign country, but she realized that that thought had hardly entered her mind. The only thing that was occupying her mind were thoughts of the Weasleys; one Weasley in particular. 'Why is Percy, of all people, keeping me awake at night?' she thought desperately. 'What makes him so special?' She groaned inwardly and rolled over so that her face was in her pillow and screamed in frustration. She was so tired and couldn't fall asleep because some over- anxious, over-smart, and over-enthusiastic person was keeping her awake when he wasn't even there.  
  
For what seemed like hours she thought of him and his family. Again and again their words played through her mind like a Muggle video. Eventually, though, she did fall asleep. For a while, at least.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
She opened her eyes, almost immediately it seemed, and saw, to her surprise and despair, a scene which she had not seen for over a year. And, what was worse, she could do nothing about it until it was all over.  
  
She was looking through the eyes of a small child, her former five year old self, to be exact. She found herself building a castle out of building blocks under the supervision of her two eldest siblings. But every time she would be nearly finished, her eldest brother would flick out his wand and dismantle her building. Each and every time she would get very angry with him and would start yelling in her slightly babyish voice, much to the amusement of her baby-sitters.  
  
"NO!" she cried out in fury as her tower fell for the umpteenth time that evening. "Paris! I want to do it! Let me finish! Helen! Make him stop! I wanna do it!!" She turned to her brother, Paris, and hit him over the head with one of the fallen blocks. Then, much to her bemusement, he laughed.  
  
"Know what, Pers? You're too much like Mom for your own good!" he joked. He lifted her up and held her high over his head and swung her around. She screeched happily.  
  
It was a happy place to be at the beginning, the real Persephone knew, but it would end all too soon. She could see the happy faces of almost all of her family as she swung around. Fourteen-year-old Europa was curled up on the floor with a book, sixteen-year-old Perseus was playing a game of wizard's chess with an eleven-year-old Io. Helen, the eldest at 21, was sitting on the couch watching baby Archie out of one eye, and little Persephone and eighteen-year-old Paris out of the other. Her other sister, seven-year-old Andromeda was upstairs playing with her dolls. It seemed like a dream family to everyone who looked at them. Everything was good.  
  
The sound of landing brooms changed the atmosphere of the house drastically. Paris set down Persephone hastily and she wobbled around the room. He turned to Helen for some sort of explanation. She looked unsure and a little frightened. "Mom and Dad went by the Floo," she said quietly.  
  
Persephone looked at all her siblings in the room. They were all looking afraid and she didn't know why. It was all fun and games just a second ago. Then, the door slammed open and all of the older siblings' fears were confirmed. The Man-Without-A-Face had come to call.  
  
Helen shot up off the couch immediately. She handed the baby to Io and yelled to Europa. "Get Andromeda, 'Opa. NOW!" She left no room for question. She looked at Io desperately. "Hurry! Grab Pers and get into the cupboard over by the television. Go! Faster!"  
  
Io grabbed her younger sister's hand with her free arm and hurried them into the cupboard. She went in first with the baby Narcissus, who was fortunately asleep, and pulled in Persephone behind her.  
  
"Close the door!" Io screeched. Persephone had no idea what was going on, but did as she was told without questioning for once. But, she left it a little open, so she could see what was happening outside. Years later, she would regret it, but at the time it had seen like the right thing to do.  
  
She watched Helen, Paris, and Perseus gather in the living room. They held their wands out and had grim and determined faces. Persephone thought it was a strange game for a moment, before she saw the new arrivals.  
  
Men rushed in with a swoosh of their robes and stood in front of her three older siblings. She couldn't see their faces because all of them had black cloth draped over them, giving them a strange faceless appearance. The one in front, a big and strong looking wizard, held out his wand towards the three young people. He laughed cruelly, as though their being there was a joke.  
  
"Do you really think you are a match for all of us?" he asked in a low booming voice. "You can't possibly think that you could defeat us?" He laughed again.  
  
"Leave," Helen said to him quietly. "Now. Or we will hurt you." It wasn't said in a challenging or threatening way. She simply stated a fact.  
  
Now the whole group was laughing. Persephone had yet to see what was so funny. "You? A child? Hurt us? Really! Come now, there are only three of you. There's just over a score of us. We could crush you. We could kill you easily without even breaking a sweat." Now Persephone knew there was nothing funny.  
  
"Oh yeah?" Paris said threateningly. "Why don't you try it?"  
  
Perseus smirked, looking strangely pale. "Or are you too.chicken?"  
  
Now there was no more laughter in the man's voice. "Dare you insult us?" Many of the men behind him were cracking their knuckles mercilessly. "Do you not understand the consequences? Do you not know-" The man stopped short. He saw Europa coming down the stairs with a very frightened Andromeda in her arms. Persephone had a feeling that if she could see the man's face, he would be smiling.  
  
"What's this?" he asked as he stepped closer to the pair of children who were now frozen on the stairs. "More of the infamous McCain family?" He turned to Andromeda. "And who might you be, my dear? Is your name Persephone, perhaps?" Persephone started in her hiding place. 'Why does he know my name,' she wondered.  
  
Andromeda looked about to cry, but she somehow kept her composure and shook her head. "No," she whispered. "I'm not Persephone. I-I'm Andromeda." The man withdrew his hand, which had been stroking the small child's cheek, as though he had been burned.  
  
He looked to his followers. "Bring them down here with the rest of their family." Two of them complied and with very little trouble carried the two down to the floor. Both were shaking horribly and Andromeda had begun to cry.  
  
"Now, I want no more of these games," the leader said to Helen, who had managed to stand her ground even when her family was being threatened. "Where is the one that is called Persephone? You bring her to me and we will leave you without killing anyone. I have need for only the one called Persephone."  
  
Helen's eyes narrowed. "She isn't here. She's off with my parents and my other sister and my baby brother," she lied. "They've gone shopping." The others looked at her nervously.  
  
"Ah, I see," said the leader. "They've gone shopping. Well, then I am afraid there is nothing I can do for the rest of you. You see, I have not had a decent night's outing in quite a long time. I need to do something to keep myself in good working condition, so I am afraid that you will have to be killed. It is a pity that your young sister was not here. If she were, you would only lose one family member, but now you're extensive family will be cut down drastically." He turned to the men behind him. "Bind them."  
  
Then, all hell broke loose. The other men ran forward to seize the five people that stood in the living room and four of the young people started throwing any hex, jinx, and curse that they could think of to keep them at bay. But four people are no match for over twenty and they were all soon bound to the railing of the stairs. The men stood near the door, but the leader stood right in front of his prisoners.  
  
Persephone continued to watch through the opening, but was constantly looking back at her silently sobbing sister and sleeping brother. She was glad that her sister could only hear what was going on and not see it. She knew that if her sister could see what was happening, she would have long since screamed and they would have been found. Instead, it was only her other brothers and sisters that had been caught. She turned back to watch.  
  
The leader was pacing back and forth in front of them, looking at each of their faces in turn. Andromeda and Europa were already sobbing hysterically, Perseus and Paris were stony faced, but their eyes held absolute terror. Only Helen was absolutely blank. She looked as though she could care less about whether she died. The only hint of emotion she gave was when one of the girls let out a particularly loud sob. Then she would grimace and look sad for a moment before returning to her blank look.  
  
"I really am sorry that I have to kill you," he said in a voice that was in no way sorry. He reached inside of his robes and pulled out a long, curved, and very sharp looking dagger. "But it is the only way, you see."  
  
He began to pace in front of them again. He stopped in front of Andromeda after five minutes of nonstop pacing in which Persephone was hoping that her parents would return. To a five-year-old, parents can fix anything. "You know, little Andromeda, you are a very pretty little girl. How old are you?" He stroked her cheek like he had less than ten minutes before.  
  
"S-s-s-seven," she stuttered in between her sobs.  
  
"Ah, seven," he said in a voice that sounded almost fatherly. "You are a very pretty seven-year-old girl. You will make a very pretty little corpse, did you know?"  
  
"Leave her alone!" Paris yelled bitterly, his face red from trying to free himself from his bonds. "She's just a child!"  
  
"Ah, I know who you are," the man said, turning to the outraged teen. "You're the headstrong Paris. It's a pity that you won't get to live to see your twentieth birthday. You would have made a fine opponent in time. Pity."  
  
He looked at Europa, who was past crying and could only tremble pitifully. "Such a lovely youth. You would have been beautiful, you know. You would have grown up to be such a lady. You know the kind. Rich husband, pretty little children, a large house in the country. The perfect little wife and mother. It's a pity about you too."  
  
Now he was facing Perseus, who looked like he was grinding his teeth in anger. "Young Perseus! You never struck me as the sort who would amount to much, but your death will still come as a great shock to your family, won't it? Not that it matters to me."  
  
Finally he faced Helen. "Ah, yes, the eldest. Helen, wasn't it? Well, Helen, you had your whole life planned out in detail, didn't you? You were even to be married to some ambitious young man in a few weeks time, weren't you? You are the one I will regret killing the most. You have the qualities that your family lacks. You are unwaveringly frank and blunt, right? I've even seen your stubbornness show up time and again. From afar, of course, but I saw it just the same. I could have loved you, you know. In fact, I did once. I even asked you to marry me. But that was long ago, wasn't it? You were still a young girl, perhaps no older than your sister over here," he indicated Europa behind his back, "But I still would have married you. You could have avoided this whole incident if you had only said yes. Everything would be different now, you know. Your family would still live out their lives, you would have no guilt to mar your conscience, and I would have no need for your small sister. But, we all make mistakes, don't we." For the first time, Helen seemed to be understanding what exactly was happening around her.  
  
"It's you," she whispered, barely audible.  
  
The man laughed. "So you remember now, do you? Well, that's an improvement, but it won't save you now, you know. It's far too late for that." He turned back around to face them all. "Well, let's get on with it, shall we?"  
  
He approached Andromeda with the dagger held tightly in his hand down by his side. He stopped short. "Oh! I almost forgot. You do know that I am what everyone calls the 'Man-Without-A-Face?'" He reached up behind his head to untie the cloth that covered his face. "Well, as a matter of fact, I do have a face. I just don't show it to everyone. Only to the people I am going to kill. Even my flunkies here have never seen my face. But, since I am about to kill you, I will give you the once-in-a-lifetime honor." He pulled down the cloth and turned so that those who were bound could see him, but Persephone couldn't from her angle. She knew he must look terrible though, because all of their eyes widened as they gazed upon his face.  
  
"Now, back to business." He continued toward Andromeda. He lifted the dagger menacingly. The fear in her eyes was apparent and she let out little whimpers as he grew closer. As soon as he was close enough, he brought down the knife abruptly and thrust it into her abdomen. The little girl shrieked horribly and all of the other bound people cried out in despair and grief. The man continued hacking at her with the dagger until the cries slowed and then stopped. He stepped from the maimed body of the girl and put her into plain view for all to see.  
  
Persephone was sure that if she could have found her voice, she would have screamed, but something inside of her told her not to utter a sound. She looked at the slack jaw and glassy eyes of her sister in shock. Blood was falling freely from several wounds over her torso into one large pool on the floor. The men who watched made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a groan, but Persephone could hardly hear it over the sound of her blood pounding in her ears.  
  
Next, the man went to Europa, who had begun to sob hysterically again. She retched and vomited all over herself as she stared at the dead body of her little sister next to her. The Man-Without-A-Face had no mercy, though, for her brought his knife down upon her before she had time to look at him in fear. He killed her more slowly than he had killed Andromeda and thrust his dagger into her slowly and twisted them inside of her before pulling them back out. He finished her by slashing her throat with one swift movement.  
  
He killed her two brothers in exactly the same way he had Europa, and Persephone found her head swimming from the smell of all the blood and the feeling of total and utter confusion. She knew that her brothers and her sisters couldn't be gone. They had always been there to comfort her and play with her. It didn't make sense to her how they could be laughing one minute and hanging by ropes with blood dripping from them the next. Still, she couldn't take her eyes off of the spectacle. She was disgusted, confused, and even hurt by it, but she was captivated.  
  
The man moved to his last victim. Helen kept her face blank and her mouth set in a firm line, but Persephone saw the tears swimming in her eyes. He put his face close to hers, but Persephone still couldn't see him. "You have a choice, Helen," he said menacingly. "You can choose to die here with your family and lose the life you could have had, or you can come with me and live by my side and rule over this new empire that is soon to come. It is your choice. Die with them or live with me."  
  
Helen looked at him and the tears in her eyes threatened to fall over. "Go to hell," she whispered. Then, with what was probably her last bit of strength, she spat in his face.  
  
He jumped back from her and wiped his face, cursing the whole while. "You had the chance to change your life. I gave you the choice to live. You didn't take it, now suffer the consequences."  
  
He lifted his dagger high, but he must have really loved her, because he did not make her suffer as he had made the others suffer. He simply thrust the knife into the front of her throat. She looked at him in surprise, her eyes wide and still full of tears. They hadn't fallen onto her cheeks, even when she was about to die. For a second she tensed up, and then her body relaxed and her eyes became listless. Only then, after her heart had stopped beating, did the tears fall. Only after she was dead did her emotion come out in full force. Persephone knew then, after those two tears fell, that her family was not going to come back. She knew that her brave brothers and sisters would never laugh and play with her again. She felt as though that very knife had pierced her heart, but did not kill her. Something within her died right then.  
  
Instead of leaving immediately after the massacre, the Man-Without-A-Face pulled out a black feathered quill from the same pocket he had pulled the dagger. He knelt down beside Andromeda, his first victim, and dipped the tip of his quill in the pool of blood that had accumulated beneath her feet. He pulled out her arm and wrote his name on her arm with her own blood. Persephone had once heard about this when her mother had been talking to her father. It was his trademark. To sign his name on his work, like some demented artist.  
  
He repeated the gesture on each of the bodies. Then, after one last look at Helen, he turned toward Persephone. He didn't know she was there, that she was sure of, but she was startled when she saw his face. His face was thin and sunken, as though he hadn't eaten in weeks, his nose was crooked and bent and came down over his top lip a little bit. His hairline had receded far enough to show the white skin of his scalp. Thin wisps of a black beard grew from his chin and his lips were drooped a little in an almost sad expression. But though all of these things were important to his face, it was his eyes that would stand out in a crowd. He had the most striking yellow eyes, like those of an owl. There were absolutely no whites, only yellow irises and a small dot of a pupil. Before Persephone had a chance to really react, he had pulled the cloth over his face once more. With one swift movement of his hand, he led his man out of the house.  
  
Persephone sat as still as stone, waiting for the sound of the brooms to fade away into the night. After five minutes, when she was sure that they were gone, she stepped out of the cupboard, despite Io's attempts to grab her back in. She walked towards the tied up corpses that had once been her brothers and sisters. She fell down onto her knees below them and finally found the strength and ability in her to cry. So she cried on her knees in the blood of her family and tried to not think of them above her. All she could think of was those eyes; those piercing yellow eyes.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Persephone woke abruptly. She sat straight up in her bed. Her face was wet from tears, her clothes clung to her with sweat, and her stomach was churning. She jumped up and ran from her room, mumbling the whole way to the bathroom. "Oh God, oh God, oh God." She opened the bathroom door with a bang, knelt down over the toilet and threw up violently. She could remember the dream clearly, she could feel everything she had felt when it had really happened, she could even smell and taste the blood that had been all around her, but most of all, she could see those eyes. She threw her head over the toilet and retched again.  
  
When she finally stood up shakily, she tried to tell herself that it was only a nightmare, but she couldn't help but remember the night when that had really happened; that night nearly 12 years ago. It seemed like only yesterday she was hiding in that silly cupboard with her only remaining brother and sister. It seemed like she hadn't aged a day over five-years- old. It felt like she had just experienced everything.  
  
She carefully made her way back to her bed. She crept under the covers quietly so she wouldn't wake her sleeping brother, and tried to will herself to fall asleep. The clock on her bedside table only read 1:30. She'd only gotten an hour and a half of sleep. She needed to sleep. But she couldn't. She lay staring at her ceiling for hours and hours before her eyelids became too heavy for her to hold open anymore and she fell into a deep and (thankfully) dreamless sleep.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
The next time Persephone woke, it wasn't because she had to throw up, but because something was making this extremely annoying tap-tap-tap somewhere. She rolled over and groaned. It was only 7:30 in the morning. What could be up making such an insane racket already?  
  
She sat up quickly and turned to look for the source of the noise. There was an owl tapping the window with his beak. Persephone sighed and stood. It didn't look like she was going to get any more sleep today, so why stay in bed? She opened the window for the little owl and it flew in precariously. It began doing laps around her ceiling and hooted wildly while Persephone tried to catch it.  
  
"Stupid bird!" she hissed at it as she finally caught it. "Are you trying to wake up the whole neighborhood?" It hooted at her smugly as though it were saying, 'Ha, got you up, didn't I?' Persephone took the note from it and it flew off through her open window in a flutter of wings and feathers. Persephone stared at it for a moment before looking at the letter in her hand.  
  
Persephone McCain Flat 203 Maple Way London, England  
  
She went over to her desk and sat down to read the letter. She opened it carefully and unfolded the parchment. It read:  
  
"Dear Persephone,  
  
"How are you, dear? I hope you weren't too startled by Pigwidgeon. He can be a little over-enthusiastic, but our family owl, Errol, wouldn't have made it all the way to London. Anyway, I was just offering that invitation to come over to the Burrow for this last week of holidays before the start of the new school term. It would be wonderful if you could join us, your brother too, of course, if he should like to come. We'll take you to Diagon Alley for supplies and take you to the train for school, as well. Just ask your parents and send a reply. If you do come, send a note to Percy, too. He can bring you here if you go to the Ministry with your Mum. Today, if you wish. Well, I do hope we shall see you soon.  
  
"Sincerely,  
  
Mrs. Molly Weasley"  
  
Persephone read it twice over to be sure that she had gotten it all and looked up. She would go, she knew that, but she had no desire for her brother to come, too. She would make an excuse for his absence. 'I've done it before,' she thought. 'He won't mind. There's nobody there his own age, anyway.'  
  
She pulled a piece of parchment from her desk drawer and began to write a reply to Mrs. Weasley and a note to Percy. But even as she wrote the happy letters, she still had that haunted feeling from her nightmare and even as she stood to give the letters to her owl, Tilaldi, she kept seeing yellow eyes all around her.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Well, another chapter done. I do hope you liked it and that you'll review. Thanks for reading! 


	4. A Time for Fun

Well, no one will probably read this, but I'll write it anyway. Despite the fact that no one seems to read this, I'm going to continue writing it. I'll finish it, even if I don't get one review, so if anyone does read this, though, I would like to say thank you. So, THANK YOU, YOU GUYS!  
  
Disclaimer: all Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowlings, you know.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
A Time for Fun  
  
Breakfast that morning was a hectic affair. Persephone's mother was far too busy scurrying around trying to get ready for her first day of work to listen to her daughter properly, her father was far too tired, and her brother just plain didn't care.  
  
"Mom? Did you hear me?" Persephone asked loudly so that she could be heard over her brother's yells for more bacon. "I got an invitation to the Weasley's for the last week of the summer vacation. Can I go?"  
  
Mrs. McCain wasn't listening. She had one hand pulling back her hair, the other putting on her robes, and she was absently supervising her husband as he haphazardly ran about trying to gather all of his wife's work-things. She turned to her son and snapped, "You've had more bacon than you need, Archie. Have some fruit. It's good for you." She was still completely oblivious to her daughter and her pleas.  
  
"Mother, aren't you listening?" Persephone ran up to her mother and pulled down her hand from her hair and the other from the sleeve of her robes. "Can I go?"  
  
Persephone knew she should have asked her mother if she could go before she sent off her letters saying that she would come, but the thought hadn't occurred to her at the time. Now she had a growing sense of dread that her mother would say no and she would have to decline. If there was one thing that Persephone hated, it was going back on her word. So she tried again for her mother's attention.  
  
"Mom," she began, holding down her mother's hands and looking straight into her mother's eyes to ensure that her mother was focused on nothing else. "When I was at Percy's house yesterday, his mother invited me over to stay. She sent a letter this morning saying that I could come today if I liked. Can I go?" She was having a very hard time staying patient. Even now, her mother's attention was wandering.  
  
"I don't know, Pers," she said reluctantly. "He's a lot older than you. I don't like the idea of you staying in the same house with some man you hardly know." Her head flipped around to her son who was trying to sneak some bacon out of the frying pan. "Archie! Get your hand away from that bacon right now! If I see one more piece in your hand, you're grounded!" Said son, needless to say, ran off towards the living room, though Persephone was sure she saw a few pieces of crumpled bacon held in his tightly closed fist.  
  
"Mom," Persephone said in exasperation. "He's not the reason I'm going. Goodness, if everything I did was revolved around members of the opposite sex, you would know. As a matter of fact, he isn't even the reason that I want to go. You see, he has a younger brother in my year (here her mother put on a look of pure disapproval which Persephone chose to ignore) who has his friends over. One of which is a girl in my year, and there's another girl there a year younger. I just want to make some friends before school starts. I don't like being the new kid, you know. So, what do you say?"  
  
Her mother looked at her strangely, and then sighed. "You're not going to let me go until I say yes, are you?" Persephone smiled. Her mother knew her too well. "All right, all right, you can go." Persephone let go of her mother's hands and hugged her tight. "BUT" her mother continued, "If I hear one word about you and some boy engaging in extracurricular activities, I will ground you until you're thirty."  
  
Persephone stopped hugging her mother and looked at her strangely. "'Extracurricular activities?'" she said, laughing. Her mother shrugged.  
  
"It was all I could think of."  
  
"Well, thanks anyways, Mom. I'll just get ready, and then I'm going to work with you." She started to run off to pack when her mother stopped her.  
  
"Wait, rewind a minute. You're going to work with me? Whatever for?"  
  
Persephone sighed and rolled her eyes. "So I can get to the Burrow. It was in this letter that Mrs. Weasley sent me." She pulled out the parchment for her mother to see. "See? It says that I should go to work with you and Percy will take me home with him. Perfectly safe, I assure you. I'll just spend the morning hanging around in some coffee shop or something. We'll apparate to his house and I'll see you come Christmas- time, or I might see you and Archie in Diagon Alley, whatever that is."  
  
Her mother thought about this for a minute, weighing it out in her mind, and then she stared at her daughter. "Wait, did you say that you'll apparate to his house? How can you apparate? You've never apparated in your life. Or have you?"  
  
"No, Mother, I've never apparated." She rolled her eyes. "You see, Percy knows about this way that you can apparate two people at once. How did you think that I got here so quick, considering we stopped at his house? He called it Tandem Apparating. He just holds on to me real tight and apparates. I just sort of go along for the ride. It's like the Floo, except without the soot and fire and fireplace. It's safe, as long as he hangs on really tight. Do you get it?"  
  
"Yes, but how come I've never heard of this before?"  
  
Persephone smirked. "Well, considering you and Dad are too chicken to learn how to apparate, it only seems logical that you should not know everything about it. Besides, it's not like it's illegal or anything, Percy's done it a bunch of times before. It's easy. So, I can still go, right?"  
  
Her mother waved her hand as though the issue were out of her control. Persephone ran out of the kitchen and grabbed all of her school things, which were, luckily, still packed in her trunk. All she really had to do was pull down all of her photos and posters from her wall. She wanted them for her room at this new school. In less than five minutes she was back in the kitchen with all of her stuff by the door.  
  
"So, Mom, are you ready yet?"  
  
Mrs. McCain looked at her daughter with a mix of laughter and exasperation on her face. "Pers, we won't be leaving for a long while yet. I don't have to be at work until 9:30 and it's only 8:40. Why don't you eat something or do something to your hair. It looks like a rat's nest."  
  
Now her mother really laughed at her daughter's look of horror. Persephone ran from the kitchen like a bat out of hell so she could fix it. Of course, her mother meant that she should brush it or something, but Persephone had a better idea. She would just change and her hair would take care of itself.  
  
She went into the bathroom and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was still the same pale face with wide full lips and a long aristocratic nose. She looked like royalty. But she wanted to look more humble when with the Weasleys. They weren't rich, and she didn't want to look rich. She thought for a moment before putting a face in her head.  
  
This face was different than any she had ever tried before. A heart-shaped face showed up almost immediately. It was quickly followed by high arching eyebrows that were a little thicker than one would normally want them. Then came a small nose and full lips. Then, to top it all off, she put a crown of thick straight almost mousy brown hair. She looked like a normal person. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. She shut her eyes and began to concentrate.  
  
Just like the last time, she focused on every feature, waiting for her concentration to reach its peak. It almost caught her by surprise when she felt the features on her face begin to rearrange themselves. It almost felt like her face was melting, like wax, to be put into a different shape. When the strange sensation passed, she opened her eyes. She smiled. She looked just like she had hoped she would. She opened the bathroom door and practically skipped back into the kitchen.  
  
"All right, Mom, I'm done!"  
  
Her mother looked up at her, almost confused as to who was talking to her. "Persephone," she scolded. "How will they recognize you? You don't look like you did yesterday. They won't know who you are."  
  
The thought hadn't occurred to her. "Well, I'll just tell them. If they're going to be my friends, it only stands to reason that they should know my secret. I mean. I'm sure I'm going to learn a fair amount of their secrets, so why don't I share the only one I have?"  
  
Her mother opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it, knowing that whatever she said would never sink into that head of her daughter's. "You're as stubborn as a mule, you know, Pers."  
  
Persephone smiled. "Grandma says that's one of the things that makes you Gryffindor material. How do you think I got into that house?"  
  
Her mother smiled. She stood up and looked at her daughter critically. "You know, I think I liked the face you had yesterday better. It was more sophisticated than this one. Now you look just like everyone else."  
  
"That's what I was going for," she responded with a grin. "I want to fit in. I don't want them to look at me like I'm special or anything. And besides, I can always change my face later. Now, are you finally ready?"  
  
Her mother glanced at her watch and then at her excited daughter. She sighed. "All right, we'll leave early. I daresay that I could do something." She gave one more appraising look at her daughter. "Are you sure that Percy'll take you seriously?"  
  
"He'd better," Persephone responded quickly and a little spitefully. "He apparated me away before I had time to do anything last time. If he doesn't believe me, I'll just pull some guilt trip on him or something. It won't be too hard. He really is to trusting for his own good."  
  
Her mother gave her a shrug as if to say "if you say so" and picked up one end of her daughter's trunk. "Come on, give me a hand," she grunted.  
  
Persephone grabbed the other end and helped her mother haul it towards the fireplace. She dropped it and let out a whoosh of air that could be seen either as relief or exhaustion. 'It was probably both,' Persephone thought.  
  
She turned to her mother. "Why didn't you just levitate it? It would have been a lot easier, you know." Her mother flushed a bright and cheery pink.  
  
"The thought didn't occur to me," she whispered sheepishly.  
  
Persephone sighed and pulled her wand out from her robes. "Incendio," she said in a bored tone, igniting a small fire in the fireplace. "So, do we have to go through that little wand check up thing again today?"  
  
Her mother smiled. "Nope, that little examination will last for a week. Today we take the quick way 'round. It should be a lot easier."  
  
Persephone took down the pot of Floo powder down from atop the mantle. "Do you want to go first, or should I?"  
  
Her mother nodded to her. "Take the trunk with you. I'll follow in a minute. That was a little too much exercise for an old woman like me." Persephone shook her head at her mother, trying to cover her giggles.  
  
She threw in some of the powder and stepped into the green flames with her trunk. "Ministry of Magic!" There was a loud igniting sound, and Persephone felt herself falling and swirling in nauseating circles as she made her way past numerous other grates connected to the Floo before finally falling out of the one in the Ministry of Magic. This time, by pure luck, she avoided hitting her head on the floor again, but kept sliding across the slick floor at top speed right into a wall. She quickly sat up, only to find that her trunk was heading right for her. She screeched as it hit her and pushed her against the wall.  
  
"Ow," she whispered, holding onto her ribs as someone pulled back her trunk. She hadn't even noticed anyone was there. She leaned against the wall, completely oblivious to the fact that someone was talking to her. Finally, two strong hands just lifted her up from the ground.  
  
"Are you all right?" the person asked. Persephone still hadn't opened her eyes, trying to stifle her pain inside.  
  
"Yeah," she managed to get out. "My ribs." The person put a hand on her side and she winced in pain.  
  
"I'd guess we'd better get you some mediwitch or something, eh?" She nodded dumbly. "I don't suppose you can walk, can you?" the voice asked. She shook her head. It hurt too much to talk.  
  
The person, a man obviously, sighed and picked her up. She grimaced but didn't object. She was sure that she had at least one broken rib.  
  
"What are you doing here, anyway," the voice continued. "You don't work here at the Ministry, do you? I've never seen you before."  
  
"I'm here to meet someone," she said gruffly.  
  
"Who?"  
  
She winced, but answered anyhow. "Per--Percy Weasley," she managed to spit out.  
  
The man laughed. "Well, that's good then. I'm Percy Weasley."  
  
Persephone opened her eyes, and, sure enough, she was met with a young and jolly face barely a foot away from hers. "Percy!"  
  
"Yes, now, what do you need of me? I don't believe we've ever met before."  
  
She smiled shakily. "I'm Persephone McCain. I've come with my things to go to the Burrow with you. I sent a note with my owl. Did you get it?"  
  
He looked at her strangely. "You're Persephone McCain? Oh dear, I do believe that you've hit your head as well. I think we should find a mediwitch now." He began to walk out of the room they had been in.  
  
"No!" she said loudly. "Wait, my mother should e coming along in a bit. I have to wait for her."  
  
He stopped, sighed, and began to walk back into the room. "Why is your mother coming here?"  
  
Persephone rolled her eyes. "Because she works here, duh."  
  
He sighed once again and waited along with her. Before too long, the green flames came up again, but instead of revealing her mother, a piece of parchment shot out into her face.  
  
"What the heck is this?" she said to herself.  
  
She opened it, as it was clearly addressed to her.  
  
"Dear Persephone," it read.  
  
"I know that I said I'd be coming along right now, but you know how our family gets at goodbyes. So, I thought it better to just leave you a note that said goodbye, rather than make a hysterical fool of myself in front of all my new colleagues. Well, I won't be seeing you for sometime, Christmas to be exact, and I knew that I would start crying, and I really didn't want to. Goodness, I'm terrible at writing letters, aren't I? Here I am babbling and rambling. Well, anyways, have a good term (I hear that's what they call semesters here in England) and I'll see you around Christmas time.  
  
"Lots of love,  
  
"Mom and Dad"  
  
She smiled in a sad sort of way. "Leave it to Mom to come up with a way to get out of things." She turned to Percy. "See? This is from my mother and it is addressed to me. Persephone." She handed him the letter. He looked at it and handed it back.  
  
He looked at her skeptically. "If you're really Persephone, then why do you look completely different from the way you looked yesterday? Can you explain that?"  
  
She opened her mouth to answer when pain practically erupted from her side. "Um, Percy, I'll explain on the way to the mediwitch. I'm kind of in a bit of pain, you see."  
  
He started walking at top speed, barely remembering to bring along her luggage with an absent "Locomotor trunk." He walked surprisingly fast, considering he was carrying a girl who was not exactly small in his arms.  
  
"Now, explain." He was not asking, he was commanding and Persephone found that she had no choice but to obey.  
  
"Well, you see, I'm a--a Metamorphagus." She half expected him to drop her when she told him, but he hardly looked surprised. "I can make myself look however I want, you know, and I wanted to look different today. It's as simple as that. Aren't you surprised?"  
  
She had expected him to at least look at her strangely or something of the sort, but he hardly looked as though he noticed. It was a little unsettling. She would have preferred him stare at her like she was crazy rather than accept the fact.  
  
Finally, he did look at her. "Would you care to prove that?"  
  
She stared at him for a moment and then laughed in his face. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I wasn't expecting you to do anything, much less ask me to prove it. But if it will make you happy, then sure."  
  
She closed her eyes and created the face that she had on yesterday in her mind and began to focus on it. She felt that same waxy feeling as her face began to rearrange itself. When she opened her eyes, she saw Percy staring at her in wonder. "So, it really is true. Well, that's a bit of a surprise, eh?"  
  
"So, now you know. It's not that big of a thing, is it? I mean, nothing too scary, right?"  
  
He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, ignoring all the curious stares that they were getting from nearby people who were obviously unused to seeing one of their colleagues carrying a girl in his arm and being dutifully followed by a trunk. Not that Persephone could blame them.  
  
"You might want to keep that little ability a secret, Miss McCain," he said at last. "It's not exactly a common gift, you know, and there are those who would wish to use it to their advantage. Minister Fudge, for one."  
  
She looked up at him in surprise. "Fudge would use it against me? How so?"  
  
He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I do know that he has plans for you. I'm not exactly sure what they are, though. I fear that they involve Harry Potter. Fudge has had an eye on the boy his entire life. Sometimes I wonder whether he has good intentions toward Harry or not. He's not exactly the sort of man to be moved by good intentions, if you see what I mean."  
  
Persephone was at a complete loss as to what she should say. How could Percy have known anything? He hardly looked like he was one to hold in secrets that could possibly be harmful to someone close to his family. How could he know?  
  
She decided, after a great length of thought, that she shouldn't tell Percy about her "assignment" just yet. Not until she was absolutely sure of his motives. One could never be too sure about these British officials.  
  
Finally, after almost ten minutes of complete silence on their part, an excruciatingly long elevator ride, and another boring walk through an empty corridor, Persephone found herself being set down onto a small plain cot. Percy patted her shoulder reassuringly and left her along with her trunk. 'Probably to find the mediwitch,' she surmised. It seemed like the only logical thing to do.  
  
And, sure enough, after another boring five minutes, Percy returned with a sour looking old witch. He led her over to Persephone and told her what happened. The witch gave Persephone the once over with her wand before turning back to Percy.  
  
"Two broken ribs and a bump on the head," she told him in a harsh voice. "I'm surprised it isn't more considering what you told me about what happened. You'd think that she would have hurt more, wouldn't you?" Persephone glared at her. She hated being talked about as though she weren't there. She got that enough when her parents talked about her.  
  
"So? Can you fix it?" she called up to them. They both looked down at her in surprise. Percy looked like he was about to laugh at her outburst, but the witch looked as though she would have liked to strangle her.  
  
"Of course I can fix it," the witch snapped with her eyes narrowed. "Why do you think I'm a mediwitch?"  
  
Persephone decided that to answer the obviously rhetorical question with a snide remark would not be in her best interests, so she kept her mouth shut. The witch talked with Percy for another couple of minutes about who she was and the like before she finally turned back to Persephone. "This will only take a minute, but be prepared. This will hurt." She lifted her wand above Persephone's chest while keeping the tip pointed to the left side of her chest. "You know, I should probably just use a potion. It will go faster. Sit tight for just a moment." She lowered her wand and hurried out of the small room to an adjoining one.  
  
"She certainly has pleasant bedside manners, huh?" Persephone asked, more to herself than anyone. Percy laughed.  
  
"Well, Mrs. Popinjay isn't exactly used to having uppity teenage girls back- talking her," he replied. "She's more used to the unconscious grown wizards who accidentally blew up something in their face. She doesn't usually have to be nice because her patients can't hear her anyhow."  
  
Before Persephone could respond to that, the witch returned with a small beaker of something that looked suspiciously acid-like. She handed it to Persephone harshly. "This isn't going to taste good at all and it will hurt like the dickens for a bit before it heals up your wounds. Drink it down. That's a good girl."  
  
Persephone downed the potion quickly, hoping to avoid the taste. Unfortunately for her, it didn't work. It tasted similar to dishwater with some sort of citric acid and sulfur mixed in. She spluttered most unbecomingly as the last of it went down her throat. Mrs. Popinjay took the beaker and left them with a very smug look on her face. Persephone would have cursed her or hexed her or something if the pain hadn't started just them. It felt like some invisible hand had gripped her broken bones and gripped them tightly while spinning them around at the same time. She gasped and clutched her side. Then, as quickly as the pain started, it disappeared. Persephone sat up and tentatively touched her side. The breaks and pain were gone. She stood with a smile.  
  
"Well, that wasn't so bad," she lied. She hopped up from the small cot. "So, now what?"  
  
He looked at her incredulously. "My, you certainly recover quickly, don't you?" She smiled at him. He rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Now I have to take you to the Burrow."  
  
"The Burrow!" she squealed excitedly. "Already?"  
  
He stared at her. "What do you mean 'already?' I wasn't expecting you yet, but as I don't have to be at work for another fifteen minutes, I have time to apparate you there and apparate back to work. It won't take too long. And I daresay that Mum's got breakfast on the table now. You can share it with them. Ginny'll be pleased."  
  
"Oh goody!" Persephone said. "Let's go now!"  
  
He laughed at her and looked around for signs of people. "All right, we'll go now, but if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I'll get you for it."  
  
She stared at him in confusion. "Tell anyone what?"  
  
"That I'm Apparating from a non-designated area," he explained. "Are you ready?"  
  
"Ready and willing!" she cried as she pulled her trunk closer to them. He put one arm tightly around her and used his other to hang onto her trunk. In a split-second they were gone.  
  
The reappeared in the Weasley's front yard with a faint pop. A bright red- haired head poked out through one of the many windows. "Mum!" it called. "Percy's here! And he's brought a friend!"  
  
Just like before, everyone stormed out to meet him. He handed Persephone over to his mother hurriedly. "I've got to get back to work, but here's Persephone. She's going to spend the week here. I'll see you all at dinner! Bye!" He waved his hand and apparated back to the Ministry.  
  
"Oh, Persephone, dear," Mrs. Weasley said to her after giving her a tight hug. "I just got your owl a short while ago. I am so pleased that you came. It will be such fun having you here. Come along, come along, it's just about time for breakfast."  
  
She was ushered inside by just about everyone, who, in turn, were all vying for her attention.  
  
"So, Persephone, how do you like England so far? A lot different from America I reckon."  
  
"Hey, Persephone, would you care for a sweet?"  
  
"Don't eat them, Persephone; they're likely to turn you into a fish or something."  
  
"You'll be sharing a room with Hermione and me."  
  
"I hear that there have been sightings of dragons in your end of the country? Is it true? Have you seen them? What do they look like?"  
  
"Just ignore him, Persephone. All he cares about is those stupid dragons. Now what I'd like to know is how do you guard your banks? Do you use curses or do you have guard creatures?"  
  
"Ignore them all, dear, and have some bacon."  
  
Persephone looked at everyone with an expression that could only be called utter and total puzzlement. But, somehow, she managed to respond to them all. She just let her mind sort of shut down as she spoke. "England's really nice. Better than I thought it would be, although some of the words that people use confuse me sometimes. No, I don't really want a sweet, but thank you anyways. And do they really turn you into a fish? That's strange. Thank you for sharing your room with me. I've never heard of dragons coming by Seattle. It's far too crowded there I think. I don't know abut the banks either. My family mostly used Muggle money. It was simpler than exchanging money all the time. I suppose they use curses, but I wouldn't know. Thank you, Mrs. Weasley, it smells wonderful." She sighed in relief. 'That must be what Percy faces everyday,' she thought.  
  
"So, dear, how was the trip over here? Did everything go all right?" Mrs. Weasley smiled at her in a motherly way as she ladled some oatmeal into a bowl for her. To all of their amusement, she laughed.  
  
"Oh, the trip was absolutely marvelous, Mrs. Weasley. Everything was just peachy. Would you like to hear about it?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Well, first off, my mother thought that the only reason that I wanted to come was so I could spend time doing, in her words, 'extracurricular activities' with Percy. Then, when I finally assured her that that wasn't why, she sent me off in the Floo saying that she'd be along in a few minutes. So I Floo off to the Ministry with my trunk, which I hadn't realized was stupid until I slid into a wall and my trunk came sliding into me from behind. I broke two ribs, but luckily Percy was there and he took me to some bat of a witch called Popinjay who was absolutely horrible and gave me this nasty potion to fix my ribs. Then Percy and I apparated here. A wonderful half hour if you ask me."  
  
They stared at her like she was crazy. "You call that fun?" the one called Charlie asked incredulously. I made a noise that was somewhere between a snort and a sigh.  
  
One of the twins hit him on the back of the head. "She's being sarcastic, nitwit. How thick are you?"  
  
Ron leaned forward closer to her from his side of the table. "If I were you, I would've gone absolutely mad. Weren't you even the slightest bit miffed?"  
  
"Of course I was miffed, but I'm certainly glad that it's all over. I don't think I could have gone through another ten minutes of that."  
  
"That sounds like an absolutely dreadful way to begin a day," said Hermione consolingly. "It's a good thing, then, that you've come to stay with the Weasleys. We'll all have a wonderful time together. You'll see."  
  
She smiled at them all warmly. "I hope so. I think that it's about time for a little fun."  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Another chapter done. Thank goodness! Well, if you happen to read this, please, please, please review! Thanks! 


	5. A Memory Knows No Sleep

So, here's another chapter. On I go with my little story. Another little bit of drama is coming up, here, just warning you, and perhaps a little romance? Who knows? Well, here goes nothing!  
  
And to toolate: Yay! A review! Thanks for that! And here comes the next chapter!  
  
Disclaimer: all Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowlings.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
A Memory Knows No Sleep  
  
Just as Hermione said, they had a wonderful day. They spent it talking, playing Quidditch in the backyard, and eating. Persephone couldn't remember the last time she had been so happy and free. This "surrogate family," as she liked to think of them, was almost better than her own. She found herself feeling more and more Weasley as the day wore on. Of course, night-time comes on swift wings.  
  
At six o'clock, dinner was served. Persephone was ushered to a seat between Hermione and Percy. She felt content as food was piled on the plate in front of her and almost drowned her in their pleasant fumes. Despite all the good food and drink, she was more interested in the company.  
  
"Hermione," she said as she turned to the girl sitting next to her. "What is it like at Hogwarts?"  
  
Persephone could have sworn that the girl's round face was practically alight with joy. "You're asking the right person, Pers," Ron said to her from his place opposite of her. "She's memorized Hogwarts, A History. I'll bet she knows more about the place than Dumbledore does."  
  
"Who's Dumbledore?" she asked.  
  
The chattering family stopped their eating and talking to look at her in surprise. Even Fred and George, who were not known for their intelligence, dropped their forks and stared at her. "You don't know who Dumbledore is?" they asked at the same time.  
  
She felt incredibly stupid all of a sudden. "No, I don't. Is that bad?" She looked around anxiously at all of their stunned faces.  
  
Hermione blinked her eyes rapidly as she tried to recover from her shock. "It's one thing to not know who Harry is, but not knowing Dumbledore... I don't know what to say to you. He's probably the most powerful wizard in the world. Perhaps even more powerful than You-Know-Who. He's headmaster at Hogwarts. You'll see a lot of him, don't worry. I daresay you'll have to meet him a few times. He's a good man, Dumbledore. You'll see."  
  
Persephone looked down at her plate to hide her red face. For some reason, when she didn't know something here, it made her feel worse than if she had been at home. Mostly because they were so kind about it. Her mother would have been impatient with her, her father would lose interest, and her brother would tease her. Here they would answer her questions and then pity her for not knowing the answer beforehand. It was a little embarrassing.  
  
Eventually, everyone stopped looking at her and began to eat again. Persephone finished her meal in silence and stood up to help clean after she was finished. Since it was the twins' turn to do dishes, Persephone helped them, despite all of Mrs. Weasley's pleas not to. She had to earn her keep somehow.  
  
"So, George, where do the dishes go?" Persephone asked one of the twins.  
  
He turned to look at her. "Over in that cupboard by the sink." She went to put it away, but he stopped her. "Why did you come?"  
  
She stared at him. "What do you mean, 'why did I come?' I came to make friends, of course."  
  
Fred came up behind her with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, sure you did. You do know that it would have been just as easy to make friends on the train. You came for more than that, and we know it."  
  
Persephone looked at the two of them in exasperation. "What are you talking about? What else would I have come for?"  
  
The twins looked at each other with identical sneers. George turned to her. "You came because you like Percy."  
  
Persephone stared at them, dumbfounded. Of all the things she had been expecting them to say, that was probably the last on her list. Still looking from one smug face to the other, she felt anger bubbling up within her chest. 'Of all the smart aleck things to say!' she thought furiously. She set the dish in her hand down hard on the table.  
  
"Really!" she all but yelled at them. "You two think you're so smart! For your information, I do not harbor any feelings for your brother. I am here to make friends, not accumulate a love life! Really!" She stormed off towards the stairs and pounded her way up them in anger. She was sure she heard the twins talking to themselves as she was leaving.  
  
"I told you she fancied him," said one to the other.  
  
"Yeah," said the other with a chuckle. "Now, how do we tell the others?"  
  
Persephone stifled an exasperated scream as she continued up the stairs.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Persephone stayed in Ginny's room for the rest of the evening, feigning a headache. She had absolutely no desire to confront those ghastly twins again if she could help it. Instead, she decided to make an early night of it, and proceeded to put on her pajamas and brush her teeth. Just as the sun had set, she crawled beneath the covers of the bed she had been provided with.  
  
For what seemed like an hour she stared at the ceiling, trying to put the thought of the twins, her anger, and Percy out of her head. So far, it had been unsuccessful. Still, as soon as she saw the first star twinkling above her through the window, she found her eyes drooping precariously. She shut them and succumbed to her exhaustion.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
She opened her eyes, and once again found herself in the last place in the world she wanted to be. Anything was preferable to seeing her own little five year old hands play with the same blocks she had seen so many times. Had she been able to cry, she would have.  
  
Instead, her only choice was to watch the scene unfold exactly as it had all those years ago. First the "argument" between herself and her late brother; her confusion at her elder siblings' fear; her own fear after seeing strange men burst into her home; her surprise when the men defeated her family; her dread when she realized that her parents weren't going to save the day; her horror as she watched the leader of the men kill her family one by one; her pain as she knelt down beneath them and cried. The name on their arms, the name of the terror that everyone called the Man- Without-A-Face. His name written in blood on the arms of her family. Nodoren. The man she knew, even at that moment, that she would kill to avenge her family's wrongful deaths. Nodoren would pay for what he had done.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
She woke up to someone shaking her arm harshly. She sat up straightaway and nearly swooned from the rush of blood that went up to her head. As she steadied her spinning head with her hand, she looked about her. All of the Weasleys, along with Harry and Hermione, were gathered about her bed with mussed up hair and droopy eyes.  
  
"Wha--What happened?" she managed to force out. She couldn't really care less what they had to say at the moment. All she wanted was for her nausea to disappear and her head to cease its wobbling.  
  
"You were screaming in your sleep," Ginny told her, concern etched in every one of her features. "You woke us all up. Was it a nightmare?"  
  
A rush of images pounded through Persephone's head as she remembered her dream. She felt the color drain from her face and the slight nausea she had before was nothing compared to the feeling she had now. She jumped up from her bed and pushed her way past the Weasleys to the bathroom. Not worrying about shutting the door, she fell to her knees and held her head over the toilet and retched violently. She didn't notice that the family had followed her until someone pulled back her hair from her face. Had she not been in the middle of being sick, she would have thanked them. When she finally leaned back into the person who was holding her hair, someone handed her a cloth.  
  
"Oh God," she whispered shakily. Tears pricked the back of her eyes and she found herself too weak to suppress them. She began to sob almost hysterically. Arms enveloped her and she began to cry into their shoulder. She could vaguely hear whispers from the surrounding family, but was far too emotional to pick out the words.  
  
After a few minutes, she stopped crying and hesitantly lifted her head, still sniffling occasionally. "I--I'm so sorry," she whispered. "It's just...that dream, it always..." She couldn't find the strength to tell them her dream/memory. It was too painful just yet.  
  
The one who held her smoothed her hair back tenderly. She looked up and was shocked to see the last person she expected. Percy looked terribly concerned as he swept a few stray locks of hair behind her ear. She spluttered for something to say, but could only look up at him dumbly.  
  
Luckily for her, Mrs. Weasley came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right, dear. It's nothing a good cup of tea can't solve. Come along. I'll cook up a pot down in the kitchen. Come on, dear." She helped Persephone stand and held her arm while they walked down the stairs. The rest of the family dutifully followed.  
  
After Persephone had been sat down in one of the chairs and Mrs. Weasley had set the kettle to boil on the stove, the family turned to her armed with questions.  
  
"What happened in your dream that made you cry out like that?" Ginny asked tentatively.  
  
"It must have been horrible to make you scream like you did," said Fred. At least, she thought it was Fred. He had a letter 'F' on his pajama shirt.  
  
"Yeah," George chimed in. "You sounded like someone had put the Cruciatus curse on you."  
  
"Was it about You-Know-Who?" Ron asked her nervously. Persephone realized that they thought she must have had some vision or something. She had been about to answer when Harry stepped in.  
  
"Leave her be for a bit, okay?" he said to the family angrily. "Some dreams aren't easy to get over with so quickly." Persephone looked at him in surprise. 'How does he know that?' she wondered.  
  
Mrs. Weasley laid a comforting hand over hers. "You tell us when you're ready, dear. I'm sure that you need a bit of recovering time before you can talk about it."  
  
At first Persephone hadn't intended to even mention her dream to the Weasleys (then again she hadn't expected to have a dream at all while she was there. Usually they only occurred once or twice a month. Two nights in a row had never happened to her before) but she found that she wanted to tell them now more than ever.  
  
"Really, it's all right, Mrs. Weasley," she assured the woman softly. "You see, it wasn't exactly a dream. It was a memory. I have these dreams occasionally, but usually not so often. I had one of them only last night. I don't know why I keep having them. I suppose it's so I can't forget..." She felt the tears build up again. She took a deep breath and held them in. "It all happened so long ago. I was only five." She turned to Percy. "Remember when I told you about my brothers and sisters at the Ministry? And I told you that almost all of them had been killed?" He nodded hesitantly. "Well, that's what causes my nightmares." She took another deep breath and began to tell them the story that she hadn't told anyone except her mother and father.  
  
"You see, it was just a normal night at my house. My mom and dad were off shopping in the city and all of us kids were left at home. My eldest sister, Helen, was keeping an eye on all of us. I was building a tower with some blocks, but every time that I got close to finishing my big brother Paris would dismantle it with his wand. After about the hundredth time in the last hour, I got really angry and hit him on the head with a block. Of course, I was too little to do any real damage, so he laughed and began to swing me around the room. Everything was so happy. It was all so perfect.  
  
"Of course, that's when things got bad. I could hear some brooms landing in the front yard. Helen said that it couldn't be Mom and Dad, because they had left by Floo. All of my elder siblings looked scared, but I didn't know why. Then the front door slammed open. I think that's when I realized something wasn't quite right. Mom always opened the door quietly so she could sneak up on us. Helen knew what was happening. The Man- Without-A-Face had come."  
  
Persephone paused to look at the confusion on everybody's face. She tried to explain. "The Man-Without-A-Face is like the American version of Voldemort." She ignored all of their flinches. "He kills people who are in his way of gaining power. I even think he has the same objective as Voldemort. He kills Muggle-borns. But sometimes I think that he's worse than Voldemort. With Voldemort you know when he has attacked someone in your house. He leaves that big sign over it and you know that something has happened. The Man-Without-A-Face doesn't do that. You could come home and think that everything was normal and find your entire family slaughtered and hanging from the chandelier in the dining room. It's horrible." She brushed away some of the tears that had fallen down her cheeks and didn't even look at her companions' looks of horror.  
  
"Anyway, Helen handed over my brother Archie, who was a baby at the time, to my sister Io and told her to take him and me into a cupboard and stay in there. She sent my sister Europa upstairs to get my other sister Andromeda and bring her downstairs to hide with us. Io climbed in first and I followed her. She told me to shut the door, but I left it open a crack so I could see what was going on. I don't know how many times I've wished that I hadn't done that. I wish I could forget what happened there, but I CAN'T." Persephone tightened her hands into fists and fought the urge to hit herself repeatedly for how stupid she had been to leave the door open.  
  
"Then they came in. There was so many of them. Perhaps twenty-five or thirty. There was way too many for my brothers and sisters to handle. Two of my sisters were still upstairs, and my two big brothers and Helen were in the living room with their wands out, ready to defend their lives. The leader, the Man-Without-A-Face, laughed at them. He LAUGHED at them! He LAUGHED at them because they were willing to FIGHT! He made fun of their attempts to stay alive. Helen told him to leave, but he didn't. He said that he could kill them without even breaking a sweat. Paris and Perseus, my brothers, taunted him, goaded him into trying. Before the leader could even get in a proper response, he saw my two sisters coming down the stairs. They didn't stand a chance of escape. He went up to them and started stroking Andromeda's cheek. He asked her if she was me. I don't know why he wanted me, but he did. When she said that she wasn't me, he called to his men and two of them grabbed my sisters and put them down beside my other siblings.  
  
"He asked all of them to hand me over, but Helen lied to him. She said that I was shopping with my parents, Io, and Archie. When he heard this, he said that it was too bad, because now he'd have to kill them all. He set his men upon them and within minutes, they were all tied up to the stair railing. Europa and Andromeda were crying, Paris and Perseus were so scared, but Helen didn't look as though she were feeling anything. She just stared at the Man-Without-A-Face blankly. He said he was sorry that he had to kill them. He said that he was SORRY! But that didn't stop him from killing them. No, he killed them anyway. I wish that I had been brave enough to step out and let him kill me instead of my family. It was a pointless death. They died for nothing." Persephone stopped to try and control her breathing.  
  
"You don't have to tell us the rest," Hermione whispered, tears shimmering in her eyes. "We know enough."  
  
Persephone turned to her. "NO!" she yelled. "You don't know. You couldn't possibly know! Have you had to watch your family be murdered and tortured? Have you seen the blood of your brothers and sisters fall like some polluted waterfall to rest on the floor that they had played on so many times before? No, you haven't. None of you have. You can't possibly understand what it was like." Hermione shrunk down in her chair after being screamed at and let her tears spill over.  
  
Persephone took another breath and continued. "He went to Andromeda first. She was so young. Only seven. He told her that she was a pretty little girl and would make a pretty corpse. Paris yelled at him to leave her alone. He turned to him, only to terrorize him. He told Paris that he would have made a good enemy. That he wouldn't live to see his twentieth birthday. Then onto Europa. He told her that she would have been a lovely woman with a rich husband, pretty children, and a house in the country. He said it was a pity that she was to die. A PITY! Then he told Perseus that he would have never amounted to anything, but that his death would still be a shock. Then he went to Helen." Persephone had to fight for her breath now. For some reason, she found that her death was the most traumatic.  
  
"When he turned to Helen, he spoke. I can remember his words better than any of the others. He said: 'Ah, yes, the eldest. Helen, wasn't it? Well, Helen, you had your whole life planned out in detail, didn't you? You were even to be married to some ambitious young man in a few weeks time, weren't you? You are the one I will regret killing the most. You have the qualities that your family lacks. You are unwaveringly frank and blunt, right? I've even seen your stubbornness show up time and again. From afar, of course, but I saw it just the same. I could have loved you, you know. In fact, I did once. I even asked you to marry me. But that was long ago, wasn't it? You were still a young girl, perhaps no older than your sister over here. But I still would have married you. You could have avoided this whole incident if you had only said yes. Everything would be different now, you know. Your family would still live out their lives, you would have no guilt to mar your conscience, and I would have no need for your small sister. But, we all make mistakes, don't we.' She knew who he was. I don't know how she knew, but she knew." Persephone wiped more tears from her face angrily. Tears seemed petty and stupid when measured beside the grief and pain she felt inside.  
  
"Then he pulled out his dagger. It was so sharp, so deadly. He had just been about to stab Andromeda when he remembered something. He was called the Man-Without-A-Face for a reason. He always wore a mask. No one ever saw his face unless they were about to be killed by him. He took off his mask, but I couldn't see his face. His back was to me. But my siblings were frightened of his face. His face scared them. Then he continued with his job. He stabbed my sister, my young sister through her stomach so many times. So many times. He kept hitting her with his accursed knife until she stopped screaming." Persephone felt the pain build and she hit the table with one of her tightly balled fists. "She was DEAD! And there was so much blood, so much blood. Then he went to Europa, and it was worse. She was so sick with fear, grief, pain, and so many other things. She threw up on herself, but the Man didn't even take time to recover from the shock of it. He stabbed her and twisted his knife around inside of her before retracting it. He killed her, then Perseus, then Paris." She gripped the edge of the table so that her knuckles were white, but continued with her narration.  
  
"Then he went to Helen. He told her that she had a choice. She could live with him and leave this all behind her or she could die alongside her family. She told him to go to hell and she spit in his face." Persephone stopped a minute to relish in the grisly pride that bubbled up in her chest. "He was angry, but somewhere in him he must have loved her. He didn't make her suffer. He just slashed her throat. Then he did his little trademark. He took out a quill and signed his name on their arms in their own blood and then left." She let go of the table's edge and held her hands out in front of her, as if fascinated by them. "I saw his face and I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was horrible." Her voice cracked and she couldn't tell them what he looked like. She didn't know why, but she couldn't. "And I can still remember the tears. Helen's tears. She held them in for so long. She wouldn't cry in front of him. She was so proud. But when she was dead, her tears...Her tears...They fell and that's when I knew...I knew that they weren't coming back." She lifted her hands and balled them back into fists, piercing her palms with her fingernails and not caring about it. "If I could have left that damned cupboard! If only I had come out and let him take me! If only I wasn't so scared. It's my fault! All my fault!" She began pounding her fists into her chest as she sobbed. Percy held down her hands and pulled her to him as she bawled.  
  
She could only feel the pain inside of her. The pain that seemed to envelope each of her senses and take over her body. She wanted nothing more than to cover that pain, to end it, to make it stop. She wanted a different pain, a fixable pain, a pain she could get over. If only Percy would let her go, if only he would let her free to make that pain a reality. A few scratches here, a slash or two there, a fist over there. Something, anything, to make the guilt and grief and inner pain go away. She fought her way free of his arms and jumped up.  
  
"Just leave me alone!" she cried, startling them all. "You can't understand! Leave me alone!" She ran out from the kitchen into their yard. She could hear people following her, but she didn't care. She began to run away from their pity, their sympathy. Damn it! She didn't need their sympathy. She needed their love, their time. And if she hadn't been so crazy with guilt, she would have realized that they had all that.  
  
After what seemed like hours of running, she found herself in a forest. She leaned against the tree and pulled on her hair for the comfort of the pain it brought on. Before she realized what she was doing, she found herself climbing the tree. All the way to the top. She didn't know what exactly she meant to achieve by taking this course of action, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Twenty feet above the ground, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five...She reached the top. She looked down below her and saw an odd flash of red, so very far below her. She laughed at it, so far below her. She stepped out precariously onto a flimsy bough. She had no idea what she was doing; she just had a suspicion that if she were to approach the edge of the branch, she could escape the pain.  
  
"Persephone!" the little bit of red called up to her. "What are you doing?"  
  
She looked down upon the red in surprise. "Percy?" She stepped a little further out into the open air. It felt so good on her skin; cool and comfortable.  
  
"Don't move!" he yelled up to her.  
  
She laughed. "Why not? What have I got to lose? All I see that I stand to lose is the pain and the guilt. Sounds like a fair trade to me, wouldn't you think. No more fear, no more 'what ifs.' Only oblivion!" But a little voice in the back of her head cried out. She didn't want to die. She just wanted to end the pain.  
  
"Persephone! Don't do it!"  
  
She shook her head to recover her senses, trying to leave the grief- stricken Persephone behind. It was then that she realized just how very high up she was. "Oh! Oh, Percy, I don't think I can get down!" She wobbled and nearly fell. She heard Percy sigh in relief below her.  
  
"Okay, Persephone, just back up," he told her with a shaky voice.  
  
She went to follow his directions, but slipped on a bit of moss and fell off the branch. She screamed shrilly, breaking the forest's dreary silence. Just when she was sure that she was going to hit the earth below, she felt something a bit softer, but certainly still painfully hard, come beneath her. She hit it with a loud "OOF!" and rolled head over heels and landed on her back.  
  
She looked around dazedly. She saw Percy lying beside her with a hand to his head and his horn-rimmed glasses askew and broken around his nose. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. "Oh, Percy, I didn't mean..." She trailed off as she began to cry again. He sat up with a groan and looked at her sheepishly.  
  
"Look, don't cry, really, it's not all that bad," he held her to him again. She slowly stopped crying. She looked up at him, and for a moment, she forgot herself. She put her hands on either side of his face and pulled him closer to her. She shut her eyes and kissed him.  
  
Of all the things that Percy was expecting, it wasn't that. He looked at her in surprise, though she couldn't see him, as her eyes were closed. He shrugged. 'What the hell,' he thought. He closed his eyes and pulled her closer, kissing her again and again, and hoping that by doing so he would remove some of her ever-existing pain.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Well, another chapter done. Sometimes, I think that I am just a little too cruel with Persephone. What do you think? Oh, well, at least it ended sort of happy for her this time. Review and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading! 


	6. A Secret Escapes

Here we go again! Next chapter coming up!  
  
Disclaimer: as you should all know, all Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowlings.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
A Secret Escapes  
  
Barely ten minutes after Persephone dropped from the tree, she fell into a fitful sleep in Percy's arms. He looked at her, so calm and quiet now. At first, he was at a loss to do. Should he wake her up and walk her home, or should he just apparate away? But he decided that it was pretty hard to do either at the moment. He didn't want to wake her from the only sleep she was likely to get that night, and he didn't really have the energy to apparate. 'We'll come back in an hour or so,' he thought. 'I'll just let her sleep a mite longer.' He wrapped his arms tightly around her and set his chin on her head. The hour came and went, and soon Percy had fallen asleep as well with a slight smile curving his lips.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
"Percy!" a voice hissed as it shook his shoulder violently. "Percy! Wake up!"  
  
Percy blinked a few times and looked up groggily. 'Why is it so light out,' he wondered. He let his eyes adjust and tried to focus on the person who had woken up. He was greeted with a redheaded man with a smirk on his face.  
  
"Bill!" he cried out in surprise. He jumped up unceremoniously, thus dumping Persephone down on the forest floor. She groaned and rolled over, but continued right on sleeping. "What are you doing here?" he continued in a whisper.  
  
His older brother chuckled quietly. "Getting you, of course. What else do you think I'd be doing at 5 o'clock in the morning? We've been looking for the two of you all night. Mum's been absolutely frantic and hasn't left that clock of hers since you dashed out after Persephone last night. A bit of a pain having to spend all night looking around for you, isn't it? But, now I've found you and we can all go home and get some food and a decent amount of sleep, eh?"  
  
Percy looked down at Persephone a little sheepishly. "How long have we been gone?" He glanced at her sleeping form as he berated himself for falling asleep. He knew that he should not have slept, but it was so peaceful with her in his arms and after spending an exhausting five minutes kissing her, he was quite ready to fall asleep as near to her as possible. 'What was that?' he asked himself. 'Stop, stop the thoughts. She's younger than you, remember? Quite a bit younger. Not to mention she's not exactly the lovey-dovey type either. Bugger.' He mentally slapped himself for thinking of a girl much younger than him in any way but brotherly.  
  
Bill smirked again at him. "You've been gone for nearly three hours." He turned to look down at Persephone as well. His face visibly softened. "Though I am glad that you found her. If you hadn't, one could only wonder what she might have done to herself. Probably something stupid that she'd regret. That is, if she lived through it."  
  
Percy looked up at him in shock. His mouth was gaping. 'How could he know?' he thought. "Yes, yes, she did try to do something stupid. I'm glad I got there when I did. It could have been a lot worse. As it was, she ended up knocking the wind out of both me and herself as well as breaking my glasses." He looked down at her sternly. "It was a good thing that I brought along an extra pair or I'd never be able to find my way back home."  
  
Bill smirk grew wider. "But you didn't come home," he said knowingly.  
  
Percy blushed a bright red color that rivaled that of his hair. "Er, no. You see, she was a bit...distressed afterwards. I, er, stayed to comfort her and she fell asleep. I hadn't intended on falling asleep as well, but as you can see, it happened."  
  
Still, Bill's smirk didn't fade. Percy was sure that his face was steadily growing brighter and deeper in color. "Well, should we go, then?" Percy asked, trying to change the subject. Luckily for him, it worked.  
  
"Yes, we should. I'll bet Mum is still panicky. You know how she is," Bill said as he smacked his forehead. He turned to look at the slumbering girl near their feet. "What do we do about her? I don't really have the heart to wake her, the poor thing. Quite the ordeal she's been through, eh, Percy?"  
  
Percy nodded. He had no desire to wake her either, but he would be immensely uncomfortable having to wait for her to wake up in the middle of nowhere. Bill knelt down beside her and brushed some of her hair out of her face. Percy felt some strange unknown feeling well up in his stomach and he had the strongest desire to push his brother away from her. 'Could I be jealous?' he thought in surprise. The revelation shocked him and the emotion disappeared just as suddenly as it came.  
  
"Here, Perc, come and give me a hand. We might as well carry her home." Percy obeyed without question and lifted her easily into his own arms. She snuggled closer to him in her sleep and he wanted to push her away so that his brother's smirk would leave his face once and for all.  
  
As they started walking, Bill turned to his younger brother with a look that seemed to say 'I knew it.' "So, Perc, she likes you." Percy looked up in surprise and fought the urge to box his brother's ears.  
  
"Yes, I suppose that she does," he admitted. "I was the only one there when she needed me. I guess, in a way, she could think of me as a friend." He felt the strange want for her to think of him as more, though, and his mind wandered back to a few hours earlier when she had kissed him. 'Maybe she does think of me as more than a friend,' he thought with a pleasant surge of contentment. Then he remembered exactly who she was. 'No, no, she doesn't. She was just grateful. Stop thinking of her like that!' Once again, he mentally slapped himself.  
  
Bill seemed oblivious to this mental byplay and continued. "That's not what I mean and you know it, Percy. I mean that the girl fancies you." If Percy had been red before, it was nothing compared to his color now.  
  
"I--I don't know what you mean," he lied, keeping his eyes downcast.  
  
Bill laughed. "You never were one for lying, Perc. Haven't you noticed the way that she clings to you? And she hardly ever stops talking about you. All yesterday she was only talking about you. 'Percy said this' and 'Percy said that.' She's absolutely smitten. It's quite cute actually. Just about everyone in the family's picked up on it, except for perhaps Ron and Mum. Ron's too thick and Mum still has hopes for Persephone to end up with him. You know how she is." He smiled at the shocked expression on his brother's face.  
  
Percy recovered himself quickly. "Now, Bill, I daresay that you've embellished the tale a bit, haven't you? You're as bad as the twins when it comes to stories. I'm sure that Persephone was just trying to make herself--" He was cut off by the aforementioned girl stirring in his arms.  
  
"Percy?" she mumbled groggily. "What? Where are we?" He could barely make out her words between her yawns and her stretches.  
  
"Shh," he told her quietly. "We're still in the forest. We're going home."  
  
"Mmm," she whispered hoarsely. She shut her eyes again to fall back asleep when memories of last night flooded through her brain. She remembered telling them all of her memories, then running out on them and almost killing herself, and lastly of kissing Percy. She groaned in despair. She opened her eyes again to look at him.  
  
"Oh, Percy, I'm so sorry," she said to him with tears of humiliation in her eyes. "I shouldn't have..."  
  
Percy would have none of it. "You told us and we understand. You don't have to feel bad about it." She looked up at him in surprise.  
  
"No, that's not what I meant at all. I don't feel bad about that. You had a right to know about that. It would have happened eventually anyway. It's better that you know now. What I meant to say was that I'm sorry for kissing you." She blushed prettily. Half of Percy wanted to kiss her again and the other half wished with all of his might that she hadn't just said that.  
  
"You WHAT?!"  
  
Persephone flipped her head around to look into the shocked and disgusted face of Bill Weasley. 'Oh dear,' she thought absently as she turned the color of a fire truck.  
  
"Bill!" she said in surprise. "I--I didn't know you were here! Oh goodness, I've really put my foot into my mouth this time, haven't I?"  
  
Percy looked down at her in a mix of affection and embarrassment. "Yes. Yes, you did."  
  
After about a minute of Bill's nonsense ramblings, he turned back to them with a look of triumph. "I knew you'd get a girlfriend eventually, little brother. Mum's gonna fall off her rocker, you do know that, don't you?"  
  
"Girlfriend?!"  
  
Both Percy and Persephone said at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise. They hadn't thought that one little kiss would officially make them a couple. If Persephone had known, she would most definitely not have done that. 'You just think that if it makes you feel better,' a little voice in the back of her head said to her. 'You know that you would have kissed him anyway.' Persephone decided to ignore the little voice.  
  
"Don't worry," Bill continued. "I'll keep it a secret if you like. Free of charge, too. You sure are lucky that I was the one who found you and not one of the twins or Charlie. They would have milked it for all it was worth." He smiled evilly. "Heck, I'll even get you some coat closet time if you want it."  
  
Percy looked at him with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Bill, I cannot believe that you just said that." He shook his head. "She said that she shouldn't have, doesn't that make the whole girlfriend thing null and void? It was an accident. She needed comfort, I was there. If you had gotten there first, she would have kissed you. Don't you get it?"  
  
Persephone risked a small smile. She knew full well that she wouldn't have kissed Bill or any of the other Weasleys. She had no idea why she would like Percy better than the others, but she did. He was most certainly not the best looking of them, or the most successful, or the most funny, but she liked him far better than any of the others. 'Stop it!' she yelled at herself angrily. 'He's too old for you. He's a grown man with a job and everything, and you are just a little schoolgirl. Take good advice and stay away!' But she realized that good advice was boring and being a little unpredictable was good for her. She'd pursue him whether he wanted her to or not.  
  
"Right, Percy," Bill said disbelievingly. He looked down at Persephone with a twinkle in his eye. "Besides, a little romance never hurt anyone." He winked at her. "You know, I was starting to think that girls weren't exactly your cup of tea," he added mischievously.  
  
Persephone had to fight to keep the giggles from erupting out of her mouth. Bill was fun.  
  
Percy gaped open-mouthed at both of them. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find something to say. They both burst out laughing at the same time and Percy found himself blushing for the umpteenth time that morning.  
  
"Geez, Percy," Persephone gasped between bouts of laughter. "You need to learn how to take a joke. You looked like a fish out of water just a second ago!" She began to laugh even harder, if that was possible.  
  
As their laughter died down, Percy turned to his brother with narrowed eyes. "Just because I don't go out with every walking and talking female in sight doesn't mean that I don't fancy girls," he shot angrily at him.  
  
"They don't have to talk," Bill said without thinking. After he realized what he said, he turned just as bright a red as his younger brother. Percy and Persephone began to laugh. Persephone was sure that she'd never be able to breathe properly again.  
  
"Now that we've finished our little verbal fight, can we go home?" Bill pleaded after they had finally quieted down. His face still hadn't lost its pink tinge and he was adamantly not looking at their faces.  
  
Percy sighed. "Yes, yes, I suppose that we can." He bent his head to look down at Persephone who was still in his arms. "I'm going to apparate us to the Burrow now, alright?" She nodded quickly and he apparated them away hastily. Bill followed suit not even a second later.  
  
The scenery swooshed by them as they apparated, and with one last dizzying turn, they landed in the middle of the Weasleys lawn. Just as Percy was setting Persephone down, she was enveloped in a tight embrace from Mrs. Weasley.  
  
"Oh, my poor dear!" she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. "Why did you leave us? I've never been so worried! Oh, my poor dear! Such troubles you've had! I'm terribly sorry! Oh, my poor dear! Come along inside. I've got some tea waiting. The others should be back in a minute or so, I believe. They said that they'd be back around five whether they found you or not. Oh, my poor dear!" Mrs. Weasley began to usher her inside quickly, as though Persephone were injured or on the verge of collapse. She continued to say "Oh, my poor dear" continually for the next five minutes, even as she poured out a cup of tea for the three tired young people.  
  
Just as Persephone was finishing her very first cup of tea (which she found to be a little bitter, but comforting nonetheless) the rest of the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione filed into the room looking very worried and harried. They couldn't see Persephone from her seat between Bill and Percy, and turned immediately to the family matriarch and proceeded to relate their entire story of their night.  
  
"We looked everywhere, Mum, even down by the village," Charlie babbled anxiously, pleading his mother with his eyes. "We haven't seen hide or hair of her."  
  
"Yes, Mum," Ginny continued as she wrung her hands nervously. "It's as though she simply dropped of the face of the earth."  
  
Hermione turned to her next, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. "Oh, it's true, Mrs. Weasley. I feel horrible. We haven't seen her anywhere. It's so..." her voice broke and she sniffled softly.  
  
Mrs. Weasley laid a comforting hand on the tearful teenager and looked at the others proudly. "You did a wonderful job looking, but Bill and Percy found her. She's over there at the table having a cup of tea right this moment. See? Safe and sound."  
  
"Though not for lack of trying otherwise," Persephone heard Percy mumble. She turned to him guiltily and shrugged. He gave her a small smile and casually put his arm about her shoulders. He barely had the time to bashfully pull it back down, though, as she was surrounded almost immediately by the relieved Weasley family.  
  
Mr. Weasley was harshly squeezing her arm and gruffly telling her how worried he had been. Ginny was almost jumping with joy, as were the twins, Fred and George. Harry gave her a shy smile from the back of the group, as did Charlie. Hermione was practically sobbing on her shoulder with relief.  
  
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she whispered through her tears. "I shouldn't have been so insensitive. I really am sorry. I should have listened. I thought that you might try to--I mean, I thought that you would--what I mean to say is--" Persephone held up a hand to cut the other girl off.  
  
"It's all right, really," she said. "Some things happened, but Percy helped me through it." She smiled at the memory. "And it wasn't your fault," she added as an afterthought.  
  
The group turned to look at Percy in surprise. He shifted about uncomfortably in his seat, clearing his throat sheepishly all the while. Persephone turned to him apologetically. She hadn't meant to just about let their secret out, it had been an accident. He glared at her momentarily before continuing his fidgeting.  
  
"Come on, Percy," Bill said mischievously, the twinkle back in his eye. "Why don't you tell us the WHOLE story, eh?"  
  
After a resounding round of affirmative answers, he opened his mouth to talk. "Well, as you all very well know, I went after Persephone right after she finished her, well, you know what I mean, and I followed her into the forest over by Stoatshead Hill. She was, well, what she was doing isn't important. The point is, I stopped her and we fell asleep. Bill found us about twenty minutes ago and we came home. The story isn't exactly a thrilling one, you know. I followed her and brought her back." Despite the edited version, Persephone knew that she was blushing up to the very roots of her hair.  
  
Before any of the Weasleys could question the story, Mrs. Weasley butted in. "Come, come, she needs her rest. Let her sleep a bit more and then you can talk to her. I should still like to get to Diagon Alley today if it is at all possible." She gently pulled Persephone up from her seat. "Come, now, dear. I'll take you up to bed and let you get a few winks. I daresay that you need them."  
  
She practically pulled Persephone up the stairs into Ginny's room. She then carefully tucked her in and kissed the top of her head in a very motherly fashion. "I'll wake you in a few hours so we can get all of the school shopping done. Dumbledore sent in your Hogwarts letter this morning." She chuckled. "I don't know how the man does it, but when the time for letters comes 'round, he always knows where everyone is." She turned back to the drifting girl. "Get some sleep now, dear. Good night." She turned around and left, closing the door gently behind her.  
  
Almost as soon as Persephone heard the door shut with a dry click, her eyelids drooped down heavily and she slept peacefully with a warm feeling in her chest and a clear conscience.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Another chapter come and gone. I realize that they haven't been terribly exciting, but if I were to give the story an end already, then I wouldn't get to write them at Hogwarts or anything, so be a little patient with me. Oh, and please review! Thanks! 


	7. A Meeting of the Peers and a Message fro...

Wow! Look at all the reviews! Thanks to all of you, especially to Leevee of Team Socket. I hope that you all like this next chapter. Here it is!  
  
Chapter 7  
  
A Meeting of the Peers and a Message from an Unlikely Messenger  
  
Mrs. Weasley was true to her word, and in a few hours, a soft hand was gently shaking Persephone's shoulder. "Come up, dear," she whispered into Persephone's ear. "We've got to be going otherwise we'll not get a thing for the school year. I daresay that the Alley is already full to capacity."  
  
Persephone opened her eyes wearily and sat up to rub them. "Yeah," she mumbled drowsily. "Yeah, I'll be down in a sec." Mrs. Weasley smiled slightly and left the room in a blur of moving fabric.  
  
Standing quickly, Persephone once again felt the all too familiar rush of blood to her head. She stretched laboriously and reached underneath her bed for her trunk. She lazily pulled out a pair of faded Levi's and a tight fitting tank top and ceremoniously put them on. Picking up her hastily discarded robe from the floor, she placed it on carefully about her shoulders. 'It feels good to wake up in the Wizarding world,' she thought gladly. 'No Concealment Charms to hide the robes. I love being a witch.' Her thoughts came and went lazily and she hardly paid them any mind as she stumbled sleepily down the stairs to the kitchen.  
  
She was greeted by no less than eleven disgustingly awake faces. They were all eating their food as though there were no tomorrow and mumbled good mornings to her between bites of hash browns and scrambled eggs.  
  
"Good morning," she said in return, barely able to stifle the head splitting yawn that threatened to break through. "Are you ready to go to this diagonally place yet?"  
  
Harry looked up at her in amusement. "It's Diagon Alley, you know. I wouldn't say 'diagonally' to the Floo if I were you." He shot a sheepish glance about the kitchen. "You'll end up in a...less savory...place." He grinned and shoved another bite of eggs into his mouth.  
  
Persephone looked at him curiously for a moment, but, judging by the deepening color in his cheeks, and on seeing that he wasn't going to elaborate further, sat down beside him. Before she could even scoot her chair closer to the table, a plate had been set in front of her and numerous different breakfast dishes were scooped up onto it before she had even a chance to protest. Not that she was about to, really. She smiled at them all faintly before following their example and digging into the pile of food with a newly found will and appetite.  
  
By the time her appetite had been successfully appeased, the rest of the family had finished and were watching her with amused interest. Most of all, Percy. She blushed quickly and frankly returned his gaze for a moment before lowering her eyes once more. 'Wonderful idea Pers,' she thought to herself ruefully. 'Might as well tell the whole family that you've gone completely head over heels for their "Perfect Percy."' She'd heard the twins call him that on countless occasions and rather felt that it suited him. No matter how hard he tried to be bad, or at least a little naughty, he always tended to fall back into the goody-two-shoes category. It was sweet, really, she supposed. He made a much better cowardly lion than a foolhardy scarecrow.  
  
As Percy saw her blush, he knew what had happened. And, just as Bill had said, the byplay was only missed by his mother and his thick-headed little brother Ron. Everyone else smirked at him or gaped in astonishment at Persephone. Unwillingly, he found that he too was coloring and hurriedly stood up and moved over closer to the stove to hide his reddening face. Persephone risked another weak smile in his direction before standing up herself.  
  
"So, let's go to this Diagon Alley now," she said loudly, to draw attention away from Percy and back on herself. "I've got to pick up all new textbooks and some robes." She thought a little bit. "And I'll need to get some new Quidditch supplies."  
  
Ron and Harry looked up at her in surprise, while Hermione groaned loudly.  
  
"You play Quidditch!" both of the boys asked incredulously. Persephone looked at them strangely.  
  
"Of course I play Quidditch," she said to them in a voice that obviously said she doubted their sanity. "Back at Gidgeon, my old school, I was one of Rockwell House's Chasers. I may not get a position on the Gryffindor team, but I don't intend to quit playing all together. I've got to keep in shape somehow, and I doubt that spending my entire day in the library studying is the way to do it." Persephone saw Harry smirk at Hermione, who was an interesting shade of violet, as Ron nudged her with his elbow.  
  
Mrs. Weasley, sensing an argument of some kind brewing, hurriedly butted in. "Persephone's right. We had better get to Diagon Alley. We've got a full day of shopping ahead of us." She turned to the older members of the family. "You can tag along if you like, but don't slow us up. We haven't got all week, you know. The term starts in three days."  
  
Persephone's head shot up at this new bit of news. "Three days?" she all but shouted. "But--but I thought the year didn't start for another week!"  
  
Mrs. Weasley chuckled gently. "Oh, no, no, dear. There's only three days left. That's why we've got to hurry." She directed that last bit at her family with an almost maniacal glint in her merry eyes.  
  
Mr. Weasley, sensing his wife's seriousness, spoke up. "She's right, chaps and ladies. Today's the day for last minute school shopping. Are you lot coming?" He turned to the elder Weasley boys.  
  
Not surprisingly, they were all coming. Mrs. Weasley, though a little more worry lines seemed to appear out of nowhere on her forehead, seemed pleased. "All right, then. Let's get going."  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
In the space of an hour, they were all dressed in their best, had hair combed and parted, and each face scrubbed till it shone red. They gathered around the fireplace and Persephone felt a pang of homesickness as she remembered her last day in Seattle in a similar situation.  
  
"Here, Bill, you first, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, ushering her eldest son forward and into the fireplace. He took some Floo Powder from a small flower pot in his mother's hands, threw it down, and yelled, "Diagon Alley!" and disappeared in the green flames that every witch and wizard knew well.  
  
After the green flames had died down, Mrs. Weasley turned to Percy. "You next, dear." Percy approached his mother with a pompous look on his face. Persephone wondered if he only acted like that around his family to make himself look important. When he was at his work in the Ministry, he was far from pompous. 'More like anxious and eager to please,' she surmised. 'At home he must have to prove himself a lot or something.'  
  
After he, too, had gone, Mrs. Weasley turned on Persephone. "Now you, dear." Persephone took the offered Floo Powder and followed the same steps as the two young men before her.  
  
She slid out of the grate in some rustic and crowded gathering place. She slammed right into two pairs of strong legs. Four arms pulled her up on her feet and she held her head as she tried to stop the spinning.  
  
After she had steadied herself, she smiled up at her two helpers, Percy and Bill. With a sheepish grin and a bright flush across her cheeks, she said, "At least I didn't hurt myself this time." Percy laughed heartily and Bill smirked good-naturedly. She stood between them and shoved them playfully on their elbows. It irked her that she couldn't reach much higher than their shoulders.  
  
She looked around at the rural wooden architecture of the building they were standing in, at the curious faces of all the drinking and eating witches and wizards, and at the toothless bartender standing behind the bar wiping a beer mug with a white rag. "Where are we, Percy?" she asked.  
  
"Leaky Cauldron," he responded absently as he was helping Ginny, the newest arrival, to her feet. "It's the place that connects Diagon Alley with Muggle London. It's sort of a meeting place." Bill nudged him with his elbow. "Oh, yes, and it's a pub."  
  
"A PUB?!" She all but yelled. A few happily drinking witches turned to her disdainfully and she was sure that one surly and pale wizard in black quirked a condescending eyebrow at her. She lowered her voice sheepishly. "And underage people are allowed inside?" she continued incredulously.  
  
"Of course," Percy said, looking at her with interest. "Why shouldn't they be?"  
  
Persephone shrugged. "In America, underage people aren't allowed in taverns. They tend to...get a little rough. Or the kids get drunk with fake IDs. You know how it is."  
  
Bill snorted. "It's a little harder to get around the age limit in Wizarding establishments, you know. Besides, they don't only serve liquor here. There's food and other suitable drinks. It's not like we'd give them Ogden's, now, would we?"  
  
Persephone flushed lightly. "Well, tell me about this Diagon Alley, would you?" She was most anxious to hear of it, but even more anxious to switch the subject away from something that would embarrass her.  
  
Harry, who'd just hopped up, said, "It's absolutely smashing. They've got everything there. You'll want to stop at Madame Malkins, though, for robes. And Flourish and Blotts for your books. Ron and I'll take you to the Quidditch shop while everybody goes to get some ice cream or something. It'll be fun."  
  
Although far from satisfied with his answer, Persephone smiled at him. She did, after all, have an obligation to become his friend, thanks to Minister Fudge. 'Urggh, don't think about that now, Pers,' she told herself with a mental grimace. 'Put it off till later.'  
  
Within the next ten minutes, the whole dozen of them were standing there beside the fireplace, dirty and ragged, but happy. Hermione and Ginny linked arms with her and ceremoniously marched out the doors with her, Ron and Harry only a few paces behind. She laughed merrily along with them, glad to finally be rid of the residual after effects of her memories at last. She stopped laughing, however, when they stopped with her in front of a blank, and impenetrable, brick wall. She looked at them questioningly. Hermione smiled and whispered, "Watch." Persephone obeyed.  
  
Mr. Weasley pushed his way to the front of his large family and gently tapped a few bricks with his wand. Then the seemingly impenetrable brick wall zigzagged its way to the sides to form an elegant archway for the people to pass through. Persephone watched in awe at the obviously superb feat of magic. Despite the fact that she'd grown up knowing she was a witch, she had lived in a strictly Muggle household in a strictly Muggle city and was unused to seeing such conspicuous displays of magic.  
  
Before she had a chance to look more closely at the enchantment, she was once again being pulled forward into a narrow alley filled with old and frail witches, pompous wizards, giggly witch-children, hooting owls, snapping and talking books, zipping and zooming broomsticks, singing and oozing plants, bent over wizards, pointed and crooked hats, swishing and flowing robes, sour-faced shopkeepers, foul smelling potions ingredients, and every other imaginable thing. It was like some story out of a book. Persephone had never seen a place so distinctly magical or odd. She wanted to touch and see everything. The crowded shops were full of all sorts of different kinds of magical folk and whatever sort of merchandises the sign on the doorframe said that they offered. As they walked past, she glanced into each window at fancy dress robes, the newest prototype broomstick ("It's the new StarFall!" she heard one boy say to a tired looking old wizard. "It's the fastest model yet, right, Da?"), a jar full of what was labeled dragon's eyes in fancy script, some neatly arranged stacks of books, and many other things. She could hardly tear her eyes from each thing and probably wouldn't have been able if someone hadn't just then bumped into Hermione, causing her to fall to the ground.  
  
Snapped from her reverie, Persephone turned to help her fallen friend to her feet, along with the person who had knocked her over. She caught a glimpse of platinum blond hair thick with grease beneath a disheveled robe as she took hold of the thick and obviously masculine hand. The young man took hold of her shoulders harshly when he was back on his feet. She looked at his pale and aristocratic face in surprise, expecting someone who looked so obviously rich to be a bit more polite and gentle. 'And soft- spoken,' she added as an afterthought as she winced at his rough tone, but elegant voice.  
  
"Watch where you're going!" he cried angrily as he pushed her away from him. "Bloody hell! My new robes! Ruined! Damned girl!" He looked up at her after brushing off as much dirt as possible. His face lost its angry pinched look as he took in her lovely face and almost impeccable figure. He quickly put on a delighted and conquering smirk and took her hand in his warmly. Now, Persephone had been about to yell back at him but was caught completely off guard by his abrupt change of heart.  
  
He swiftly brought her knuckles to his face and brushed his lips across them in a way that caused her to shiver. "Terribly sorry," he said silkily with a glint in his eye that Persephone immediately recognized. It was the look that the boys of Aravard House (if you don't remember, that's the name of one of the houses at Persephone's old school that I mentioned in the second chapter) at her old school had given her when she put on a particularly lovely Change. It was a look that said, 'My next conquest' and completely disgusted her. "If I had known that it was such a lovely creature that had helped me I would not have been so crude. I beg for your forgiveness, my dearest..." he thought a moment. "What is your name?"  
  
Before she could answer, he was pushed away by two pairs of strong hands from behind her swiftly against a wall. She recognized them immediately as Harry and Ron, but barely could recognize them from the unfamiliar murderous looks on their faces.  
  
"Leave her alone, Malfoy," Ron hissed through clenched teeth. "She wants nothing to do with a wizard like you." The man, Malfoy, stared at Ron in surprise that quickly melted into indifference.  
  
"So she's yours, then, I take it, Weasley," he continued in a voice as slick as oil. "Pity. I thought that perhaps she was above such filth. She looks far too good to acquaint herself with a wizard like you. I suppose that she's nothing more than a tart, then. Pity."  
  
As quick as they had gotten hold of him before, they had him held up by his robes a few inches from the ground. Persephone looked from Harry to Ron in stunned silence. She had suspected them to be a naturally good-natured bunch and couldn't fathom the looks of utter loathing that they were giving the young man, Malfoy, as they held him up.  
  
"Say that again, Malfoy, and your head will be so far up your own arse that even Pomfrey won't be able to retrieve it," Harry threatened venomously. They let him drop roughly to the ground and turned around to the girls who, Persephone noticed, were looking at the fallen man exactly the same as the two guys.  
  
"Come on," Harry said to her a bit more gently. "Let's go." With one last confused glance at the seething blond boy, she took Harry's offered arm and followed him without a word.  
  
As soon as she was sure that they were out of earshot, she turned back to Harry and Ron. "Who was that?" she asked softly and carefully, not wanting to make the return of the frightening faces they had earlier at the mention of the blond.  
  
"Draco Malfoy," Ron replied with a sound that sounded halfway between a derisive snort and a harsh laugh. "The snarkiest Slytherin to walk the Earth since Tom Riddle."  
  
Harry smiled darkly. "He's in our year as well. You'll be seeing a lot of him. He tends to show up when he isn't wanted, especially around the three of us." He nodded towards Ron and Hermione. "Now that he knows you're with us he'll take time to be rude to you too. Just ignore him." He thought a bit and continued with a smile. "Or you could give him a good whack across the face like our Hermione did once." Said girl blushed in embarrassment.  
  
"He deserved it, as you very well know, Harry Potter," she said sheepishly. "Besides, it wasn't me who punched him smack in the gob and got banned from Quidditch for life by one Dolores Umbridge."  
  
Persephone gaped at Harry openly. "You've been banned for life!" she cried, disbelieving. Harry turned a bright crimson.  
  
"Not for life," he amended. "Only for the year. Although if Umbridge had her way it would have been for life, but she went...galloping mad, you could say." He cast a sideways glance at Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, who were all holding in laughter.  
  
Though it made Persephone uncomfortable to hear all the inside jokes, she laughed appreciatively before asking another question. "Why do you hate that Draco Malfoy character so much?"  
  
Ron snorted. "What's not to hate? He's slimy, he's crude, he's lewd, and he's a goddamned nuisance if you ask me."  
  
Hermione gave the redhead an annoyed glare. "You should be a bit more closemouthed with your opinions now, Ron Weasley. He's Head Boy and will show no qualms when given the opportunity to deduct points from Gryffindor if he hears you talk like that," she scolded.  
  
Ron shrugged, mollified. Ginny turned to Persephone to share her side of the story as well. "And his father's no prize either, Persephone. A known Death Eater and a regular snake in the grass. He's done nothing good ever and he's done far worse things than a few name callings. He's--well, he's done more things than Draco can boast. Things that have or almost caused people their lives." She shivered and Harry let go of Persephone to place a comforting arm about the girl's slightly shaking shoulders.  
  
Just as Persephone was on the verge of asking more prying questions, a voice called out from amidst the throng of bustling wizards and witches. "Harry! Ron! Hermione!" The three turned around to face a tall, thick- looking, and pleasant faced young man with short and slightly tousled brown hair. "It's good to see all of you again. I haven't seen anyone since last year except Gran." He shuddered. "Not very good company, that."  
  
"Neville?" Hermione asked disbelievingly with wide eyes. "Neville, is that you?"  
  
The boy looked at her shyly. "Yeah," he mumbled. Ron, Harry, and Ginny's eyes widened just as Hermione's had. "It's me."  
  
"Oh, my gosh, Neville! What happened to you?" Hermione stared at the magnificent spectacle of gorgeous young man. "You look so...different."  
  
He shrugged as his face turned the color of a ripe tomato. "Gran's idea," he answered. "She says if I can't be a great wizard then I could at least be good at hard labor." Again, he shuddered. "You wouldn't believe the things that she had me do over the hols. I don't think I'll ever be able to get my muscles to stop aching."  
  
Harry shook his head in amused bewilderment. "Well, whatever she did, she did it well. You look a right picture, you do."  
  
With a final wave and promise to see them on the train, he ducked into a potion's ingredients shop. Persephone looked at her four companions dumbfounded expressions with amusement. "Who was that?" she asked after the look was gone from their faces. "He seemed nicer than the last one."  
  
Hermione turned to her, as if just remembering she was there. "Oh, that's Neville Longbottom and he is very sweet. I'm sorry that we didn't introduce you, it's just that I was a little.overwhelmed by the new him." Harry and Ginny laughed at her crimson face. Ron, on the other hand, looked about ready to murder someone.  
  
They ushered her into a horrendously crowded little bookstore and began pulling book after book after book from the shelves and into her open and rapidly filling arms. Though after they had put any where from ten to twenty books in her arms, they took her to the cashier's desk so she could pay for her things. When he asked for fifteen Galleons, 12 Sickles, and 7 Knuts, she gladly paid and left with a huge bag in one of her hands.  
  
While they were all chatting about normal teenage things, they were interrupted by another voice, this time, though, it was that of a girl. "Harry, Ron, Hermione. It's really nice to see you." A girl with long honey-colored hair, lightly smiling lips, and vacant, protruding eyes stepped out of nowhere. Though they were all startled by the abrupt appearance, Persephone's friends did not seem too terribly surprised to see her there.  
  
Ginny embraced the blank faced girl carefully while Ron placed a tender hand on her shoulder. "Luna," Hermione beamed. "Absolutely marvelous to see you again. It's been a while." Though they were considerably more subdued and gentle with this person than they had been with Neville, Persephone could practically feel the magic coming off of her in thick waves and she knew that she was one of the most powerful witches in Britain, even if she didn't look it. Persephone carefully tapped on Hermione's shoulder, wanting to be noticed this time and introduced rather than asking questions after the person had left.  
  
"Oh, Persephone! I forgot that you were there," she said in response. "Luna, this is Persephone McCain. Persephone, meet Luna Lovegood." Persephone shook the distant girl's hand with a smile which, surprisingly, Luna returned. "Persephone's from America. Her mother used to work in the American Ministry of Magic, but was transferred here and Persephone and her family came along too. She'll be in our year at Hogwarts and in Gryffindor."  
  
Luna turned her strangely alluring face to Persephone after hearing that she was from America. "My dad has been to America. He says that somewhere in a place called Kentucky there is supposed to be a five-winged Bladruun and in Florida there are the elusive Flig-bopples. I don't suppose that you've ever seen one?"  
  
Persephone felt her eyes widen in surprise, but she found her voice for long enough to answer. "I've never been to Kentucky or Florida, I lived in Washington State. Come to think of it, I've never heard of those animals either. Have you seen one?" Persephone couldn't tell if the odd girl was making up the names or not, but she was truly curious.  
  
Luna shrugged and the corners of her mouth drooped, but the distant look in her eyes didn't fade. "No, but my father says that he might have seen a Haggle-Spined Rethnix in Vermont. No matter. Someone always sees them and reports it. I'm sure that they're just shy animals."  
  
After rather lengthy farewells, she, too, left them in search of Neville. She said that she was curious to see if he truly did look as different as they had said he did. "He might have come across a Gadflee or a Naplice. They're said to cause physical transformations. I think that I shall go and ask him. It would make a good article for Dad." Persephone looked to her friends after she had gone.  
  
"So, her name is Luna, you say?" Persephone laughed lightheartedly. "I like her. She's interesting."  
  
"I daresay she is," a rough, but silky smooth voice said from behind them. Persephone turned around in surprise to face the sallow-faced man who had raised his eyebrow at her in the Leaky Cauldron. She hadn't noticed before, but now that he was closer to her, she saw that his hair was far too greasy and his nose was far too hooked and his eyes were far too narrow. Even at first glance, she knew that this was a man that would be hard to find fondness for.  
  
"Snape!" Persephone heard Ron say in astonishment from behind her. The man's black eyes narrowed even more as he turned to look from her to Ron.  
  
"Professor Snape to you, Mr. Weasley." His voice had a slight edge to it, but he didn't lose the silkiness. "I have to take Ms. McCain from you now, if you don't mind." He grabbed hold of her upper arm with his spidery-thin hands.  
  
"What?!" all five of them said at once. Snape winced, but didn't let go of her arm.  
  
"Are you hard of hearing?" he snapped angrily, his eyes sparking with a fire that was in no way friendly. "I said I have to take Ms. McCain from you now, and I intend to do so. Now, if there are no further interruptions..."  
  
But, of course, there was a quintuple of interruptions. Persephone, though, won out, considering that it was she who was about to be spirited away to who knew where.  
  
"Why do you have to take me, Mr. Snape?" she asked him in confusion. He winced at the use of his name in such a familiar manner, but she continued before he had a chance to correct her. She closed her eyes in dread as the thoughts came unbidden into her head. Ugly and horrible thoughts that didn't end happily, but ended only in death, pain, and guilt. "Something's happened, hasn't it?"  
  
Her voice, so morose and calm, surprised them all, especially Snape. He had been expecting anger, confusion, even hysterics, but he wasn't prepared for the quiet or the stillness. Surprise must have addled his brains somewhat, because he didn't give her the answer that Albus Dumbledore had provided him, but told her the straight-out, unadulterated truth.  
  
"Yes. Something's happened."  
  
She hissed sharply as she sucked in air between her bared teeth. After a few more breaths like that, she reopened her eyes and looked at him, almost knowing the answer before he said it. "What happened?" she asked, knowing that he wouldn't answer unless she did.  
  
For the first time that Harry could remember, he saw Snape sigh with an emotion that could have been called sympathy, pity, and even compassion. Words that just didn't mesh with the name Severus Snape. He looked at his Professor's face in surprise as he realized that the frown he had was not one of annoyance or anger, but of outright pain and sadness. He waited for the words that were on the tip of Snape's tongue with bated breath. Just like Persephone, he knew that it was something horrible.  
  
"Ms. McCain, I would prefer to answer that in private. Preferably with Albus Dumbledore present. It's not exactly good news that I've come to deliver."  
  
Persephone's eyes narrowed until they were almost as small as those of the man before her. "Mr. Snape, if you don't tell me here and now I won't come with you. Tell me."  
  
Ron had to hide the most inappropriate smirk that was coming across his face. He knew that the situation they were all in was serious, but he hadn't ever heard someone stand up to Snape so calmly and evenly. If circumstances were different, he would have laughed out loud, even though it would most likely cause him to lose house points. 'Hell,' he thought, 'if she does it again, house points be damned.'  
  
Hermione, though she was terribly amused, could find no room in her heart for laughter. Whatever Snape wanted to say was terribly important. And very possibly hazardous to Persephone's health. The girl was already so frail, despite her outward appearance, and Hermione didn't think that she could handle very much more stress without falling apart. She was proud of Snape for realizing that (he didn't, but she didn't know that) and treading carefully on tiptoe around her.  
  
Ginny was simply confused. She saw by the expressions on her companion's faces that the situation was dire, or in Ron's case, funny, but she didn't understand completely. Sure, she knew that Persephone had a dark past, but there wasn't one person she was close to who didn't have some horror or other behind them. She knew something important was about to happen, for better or worse, and that it was going to affect them all. She could feel it. Ever since her escapade with Tom Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets in her first year, she got feelings when something bad was about to happen. She got the feeling in her second year the minute Professor Lupin walked in the classroom door, the minute Harry's name was pulled from the goblet of fire, the minute they had gone into the Department of Mysteries. Each time something horrible had happened and now was no different. Lives were on the line, and not just that of Persephone, but of all of them. The air around her was changing and she could feel it in her bones. For now, however, all she could do now was wait for Snape to spill the beans and see what happened next.  
  
Snape sighed again, a longer and more emotional one than before. "Ms. McCain, we, that is to say, the Headmaster and the teachers, have received word from Minister Fudge this last night, or early morning, depending on your view point." Persephone's heart froze momentarily at the mention of Fudge before quickening with fear and dreadful anticipation. "It seems that your sister and her family were found in their home." He paused for a short breath. "They were dead. Murdered by someone of the name Nodoren. I am sorry. Now, you must come with me. You must see Dumbledore. You must be brought abreast of what has happened concerning the Dark Lord and this Nodoren. Come now." He tugged on her arm, but she didn't move.  
  
Persephone heard his words, but couldn't quite understand them fully. She heard him say that her sister was dead. She heard him say that her sister's family was dead. She heard him say that she must come with him now. She heard him say he was sorry. She heard everything, but none of it hit her. That is, none of it but the word Nodoren. She heard and understood Nodoren. Her heart seemed to stop and her body went rigid. Her heavy bag of books fell like a stone from her suddenly nerveless hands. She looked ahead blankly for a moment, barely feeling his insistent tugs on her arm. Then, as though someone had set fire to every nerve in her body at once, she began to shake. Not just a little shiver, but flat out shake. She felt hands try to steady her, but she kept shaking.  
  
"Oh," she said simply. Her shaking didn't stop entirely, but it slowed, and her muscles itched for movement. She felt a soft thin hand grip hers sympathetically, but she couldn't think of who it was. All she could think of was a pair of yellow eyes. "Oh," she repeated.  
  
Then, before anyone could react, she shot away from them like a bat out of hell. Her legs thrust out in front of her only to fall harshly on the cobblestones underfoot. She pushed her way past people, ignoring their surprised and rude remarks, and ran. She ran for peace, she ran for solace, and she ran for vengeance, but she couldn't make any sense from her actions. Her mind was, thankfully, blissfully blank (for the most part) and she truly could feel no pain. Only a distinct, if unrecognizable, hollowness. It felt similar to the large hole that she had already had for a long time, but the edges of this new addition were obviously much more jagged. She knew that the strange hollow was something she should know, but the overwhelming feelings she knew she'd get if she dwelled on it were enough to make her hesitant to explore her thoughts.  
  
She reached a less populated, but certainly still busy, bookshop at the end of the Alley and sat down on the hard stone ground in exhaustion. She could feel tears pricking at her eyes, but still couldn't fathom what they were there for. It just didn't make sense. Snape had said that her sister was dead, that Nodoren had killed them, but it just didn't click in her mind.  
  
As she thought, she felt a light, but strong, hand fall on her shoulder. "Persephone?" its owner asked. She started and turned up to look into the slim and handsome face of the person she most wanted, and most didn't want, to see. He knelt down beside her. "What's the matter?"  
  
She looked at him for a moment, hesitating on what she should say. Finally, she decided on an easy, "Oh, Percy," and fell into his arms with a sob.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
All right, all right, I know that wasn't a spectacular chapter, but hey, the story's coming along. Things will start happening more now and, well, we might just get to see a little more Percy/Persephone action. Who knows? ( Well, review, please! 


	8. A Lesson in Things from the Headmaster

Well, I know my chapters have not been the best of written works, nor do they come out quickly, but I have school (YUCK!!!) and haven't had much time to write between homework and classes. But I'm trying!  
  
P.S. Thanks to all who review!  
  
Chapter 8  
  
A Lesson in Things from the Headmaster  
  
Persephone knew that her actions were not entirely rational, or sensible for that matter, but they seemed like the only thing that she could possibly do without losing herself completely to grief, confusion, and pain. Sure, it hurt, but in the comfort of arms she could ignore the immediate agony and focus on the small comprehension she had on what had happened.  
  
Snape had said that her sister and her sister's family were dead. Murdered, no less. Murdered by that bastard Nodoren. She could feel a slight realization in her, a realization that clearly stated 'You'll never see them again,' and that hurt more than the fact that her one true fear had come back to haunt her. She saw the soft, pale face of her sister Io. She could feel her arms around her, holding her and telling her to send an owl by not even three days ago. The kind eyes, the small thin lipped mouth, the slim agile hands that could make everything seem better; Persephone couldn't get the images out of her head. Then there was her brother-in-law, Pete. He was the exact opposite of her sister with his rather heavy-set frame, thick hands, and jolly laugh. He didn't look like the sort of person a petite and fragile looking woman would marry, but they had the best home life. Especially with the arrival of little Riley, their infant daughter. The baby who would never live to see her very first birthday. Memories of things that had not yet come to pass played through her mind in a fast frenzy. So many missed opportunities that Riley would never have, never talk, never read, never make friends, never love, never marry, never anything. She, along with her parents, was simply gone, ceasing to exist.  
  
"Oh, Percy," she murmured again into his chest. He was mechanically stroking her hair and she could feel his utter confusion. He didn't know, he didn't have to know, he was simply there for her. He would comfort her, hold her, and do anything for her simply because she was distraught. He, unlike so many others she knew, didn't need a reason to hold her. He just did what needed to be done without a second thought. And this thought made her feel safe, well-cared for. She could have stayed there all day, crying and reminiscing, but apparently fate had its own plans.  
  
Another hand, this one more cold and wiry fell onto her shoulder. "Miss McCain, I do not have the patience for more of this...Gryffindor sentimentality. We really must be going now. Albus is expecting us, in case you've forgotten." His voice was harsh, and cold, and unfeeling, and Persephone had no desire to leave Percy for Snape or Dumbledore.  
  
"No," her muffled cry came, thick with tears and pain. "No, I'm staying right here." The grip on her shoulder tightened and pulled her face away from Percy's shoulder. She gave out a small cry as he turned her around to look into her tear-stained and blotchy-red face.  
  
"You must," he replied in a softer, more sympathetic tone.  
  
Percy stood, pulling Persephone up with him. "Professor, what is the matter? I found her just sitting there, but she hasn't said anything until just now. What's happened?"  
  
Snape turned his cold stare to the Weasley who, he noticed much to his chagrin, was at least three inches taller than himself. And Snape knew for a fact that his glare wasn't half as intimidating when his eyes were below those of the one he was glaring at. "It is not my place to answer such questions, Mr. Weasley. However, if Ms. McCain decides to tell you, I really and truly couldn't care less." He waved his hand flippantly while keeping the other firmly attached to the girl's shoulder.  
  
Persephone turned to look up into Percy's questioning and confused eyes. "Oh, Percy, I...if only it were so simple. You see, something's happened and I have to go to Dumbledore. At least, that's what this guy who looks like he just climbed out from under a rock says." Snape turned from his indifferent glances around him to send her a glare that could have set her into flames. "I want to tell you, I really do, but I've had enough sympathy for the week." He slumped a little, but his eyes showed understanding. "But if you come by to the school sometimes, I'm sure that I'll be able to see you, and I'll feel freer to speak with you then. Come see me in a week or two."  
  
"Are you quite done?" Snape snapped. She nodded. "Come along then. I've already spoken to Mrs. Weasley and she'll have your things sent up to Hogwarts post haste. Now we really must be going." He pulled her along a little more forcibly.  
  
She shot him a glare. "Just a minute, Turbo. You can wait a little bit longer." She stood up on her tiptoes and gave Percy a quick, but tender, kiss. He stared at her for a moment before turning bright red, then after a short inner battle with himself, he grabbed her and pulled her to him in a passionate, if short, kiss.  
  
He let go of her and waved quickly before disappearing into the crowd. Persephone returned dazedly to Snape's side. His eyes showed a mix of amusement, bewilderment, and disgust, but he didn't question her. He took a hold of her arm and ushered her into a small nook fashioned between two of the less conspicuous shops.  
  
"We'll have to apparate now, Ms. McCain. You do know that this means I'll have to hold you close to me, I assume?"  
  
She rolled her eyes. "Of course I do. It's not like I've never apparated before, is it?" She couldn't help but be a little sharp and sarcastic with him. Besides, from what little she knew of him, he sounded as though he deserved every last bit of sarcasm and rudeness she could dish up.  
  
He sneered at her and without so much as a by your leave, grabbed her by the shoulders and apparated them.  
  
As soon as she knew that the apparition was done, she pushed herself away from him, hit him hard on the shoulder, and proceeded to chew him out. "What the hell was that about?! You didn't even tell me we were going yet! If you weren't my teacher, I'd smack you across the face!"  
  
He smirked. "It hardly seems as though my being your professor mattered much and I daresay that I'll have a bruise to prove it." She glared at him. He shrugged at her and glared more menacingly back. "We're at Hogwarts now, in case you didn't notice," he added nonchalantly.  
  
She turned to look at this school that she was to attend for the next year expecting to see some fairytale-like German-looking castle and was terribly surprised at what she did, in fact, see. The castle looked more along the lines of something one would expect to see in Scotland (which Persephone was inclined to think that's where they were) with its thick, round stone towers and small and high up windows. The towers and buttresses were so numerous that she could hardly count them all. Each seemed to take on a life of its own with varying lights and glass and positions. Hogwarts seemed more of a living and breathing thing that had to grudgingly house the no doubt hundreds of adolescent witches and wizards inside of its many halls and rooms and dorms. She couldn't take her eyes away from the magnificence of it. Every rock that made each and every wall was in itself a masterpiece, full of small and intricate grains that could never have appeared in anything that wasn't absolutely comprised of the most powerful and elemental magic. Even as she was looking at it, she hadn't noticed it getting any closer to her until she stood at the very face of a large door that towered over her, Snape, and probably would tower over even the tallest of giants.  
  
"Wow," she managed to mutter as he pushed one of the humungous doors. "This place is big." He snorted derisively and grabbed her arm.  
  
He led her past a big room that looked large enough to hold her family's entire flat, a hall that was even larger, numerous staircases and doors before finally stopping in front of what appeared to be some sort of gargoyle made from some sort of brassy bronzy metal. Snape gave her a withering and exhausted glance before he muttered "Chocolate-Covered and Fudge-Dipped Truffles" to the seemingly inanimate gargoyle. She stared at him with wide and amused eyes to which he could only shrug. Before she had a chance to make fun of this strange thing to say, the gargoyle began to spin into some form of wizarding escalator. Snape stepped onto it and, after a moment's worth of doubt, she followed suit.  
  
"What was with the 'Chocolate-Covered and Fudge-Dipped Truffles' thing?" she asked a bit mischievously.  
  
He glared at her momentarily, his mouth open and ready to respond, but the magical escalator had stopped and they stood now at the door to Dumbledore's office and he did not answer. Instead he knocked on the door shortly and opened it the second an old and rather gravelly voice said for them to come in.  
  
Snape opened the door for her and she stepped into what she thought must have been what Dr. Jekyll's Laboratory must have looked like. The round room was full of little gadgets that all seemed to have their own functions. One whistled as she passed it, another bounced around on its stand and even another mimicked every little noise that shot through the silence. She stepped closer to one of the little gadgets with interest only to feel a bony and warm hand fall onto her shoulder. She turned around to look into the most unforgettable face to ever be on the face of the earth. His merry blue eyes were looking down into hers from beneath bushy white eyebrows, behind what could only be called half-moon shaped glasses, and above a long crooked and narrow nose. His silken hair the color of snow fell down to his waist in straight and abundant locks, and even his long white beard was long enough to be tucked into his wide and intricate belt. If one were to see him anywhere they would easily mistake him for some bohemian king or something of the sort. He had a regal, commanding, and kind look to him. He was pure light without even a hint of shadow. Persephone knew at once that this man was Dumbledore.  
  
"Y-you're Dumbledore, aren't you?" she asked in barely more than a whisper. He smiled at her before taking her hand in his.  
  
"Yes," he said as he led her to a comfortable armchair on one side of his desk. Snape took the seat next to her without hesitation. As soon as Dumbledore got himself situated behind his desk, he pulled out a small and bulging paper bag from one of the many drawers. He held it out to her with a glint in his eyes. "Care for a lemon drop? I'm rather partial to them, myself." She quickly and incredulously refused. He set down the bag and took one for himself, closing his eyes in delight for the small sweet. "All the better, I suppose," he said after a moment. "Leaves all the more for me, doesn't it?"  
  
After another minute of watching Dumbledore enjoy his candy, Persephone couldn't take it anymore. "Why do I have to come and see you, Mister Dumbledore (or whatever it is I should call you)? Why couldn't I stay with the Weasleys? I was having a good time, I was safe, and everything was okay. Why did I have to come here now?"  
  
Dumbledore's face fell and he quickly became much grimmer at the subject she had brought up. She waited for his answer. "Because it is no longer safe there. Your family's in danger. Your parents will be all right with the Ministry, and your brother should be here in a few hours. We've only just become aware of something that could not only kill you and your family, but could very possibly destroy the entire wizarding world, as well." He took a deep breath. "Voldemort's gained an ally."  
  
Persephone stared blankly at him. "What do you mean 'an ally'? Doesn't he already have a lot? I mean maybe it's just me, but I figured that to take over the entire wizarding world, the force would have to be more than one person strong."  
  
Snape snorted and Dumbledore shot him a warning glance. "Of course there's been more than one, but that's not what I mean. I mean to say that he has gained an ally that is motivated by the same things he is. They're both itching for control of our way of life, waiting until the Muggleborns and anyone else that stands in their way can be eliminated. And now he's got himself Nodoren," Persephone flinched at his name, "who's perhaps the most evil wizard to ever set foot in the Americas. Which I think you know, don't you?"  
  
She looked up at him through stinging eyes. "Yes, I know of him."  
  
Dumbledore gave her an appraising look that could be anything between pride and sympathy. Even Snape had forgotten his rude comments as the conversation took a turn for what could only be called the worse.  
  
"He's the one who killed your sister and her family, not to mention the rest of your siblings earlier in your life." Persephone's breath began coming in quick short gasps as she tried to keep the dark images in her mind at bay. "But the two of you are more closely linked than that. You share a past, a history, that's gruesome and angry, but you've dealt with it better than he has, and he knows it. He needs you to help with his mission, but you've resisted each of his attempts, whether you know it or not. He's attempted to abduct you and take you to his side ever since you were born. You see, there's something that you don't know about yourself, something that only your parents, your elder sister Helen, your grandmother, Professor Snape, myself, and Nodoren know." He took a deep breath and looked squarely at her. He did not speak.  
  
"Well?" Persephone asked after a half minute of silence. "What is it?"  
  
Dumbledore's eyes went dull for a moment before he continued. "There's a prophecy, not unlike that which concerns Harry Potter and Voldemort. But yours, perhaps, is a bit more gruesome. Harry's concerns Voldemort and a little thing about only one surviving. Yours, however, runs thus: "There dwells a family of ten In a time of darkness and pain. During the night a dagger falls Leaving half of them slain. A Man with a Mask And a horde of thousands more Seek a girl of no face And a book of ancient lore. In little time the book is found But the girl leads them on a chase Through hills and valleys and caverns too Pursued by the one called 'Man Without a Face.' But the time draws near And soon he'll call. Either she'll claim his life, Or he'll claim them all."  
  
The silence and tension in the room was so thick that, as they say, you could cut it with a knife. Persephone stared at her new headmaster with a blank expression on his face, knowing that what she heard was, in fact, the truth. Of course, it was hardly believable and she could hardly place his words at all.  
  
"Do you mean to tell me," she managed to splutter out, "that I'm going to have to kill Nodoren?" She prayed in her head that this wasn't the case.  
  
Dumbledore sighed. "I'm afraid so, Ms. McCain." She shuddered and let out a shaky breath. "But don't get yourself in a tizzy just yet. There are some things that you still don't know," he put in quickly. "There's the matter of him teaming up with Voldemort. You must become aware of recent developments."  
  
Persephone looked up at him wearily. "Recent developments? Why does it matter? I can just do what I like. I'll either kill him or die with the rest of you, right? It looks like fate exists after all. My path is set, so why worry?"  
  
Snape made a noise that eerily resembled a growl from his seat beside her. Dumbledore glanced at him with what looked like half a smile. "Easy, Severus. Now, Ms. McCain, you see, the path isn't set at all. The fate of the wizarding world lies just as much on your shoulders as it does on Harry Potter's. You must defeat this new foe to give Harry a chance to defeat his. You are like a preamble, a warm-up, the dress rehearsal before the performance. You are needed to save us all just as much as Mr. Potter is. If we cannot depend on you, then Harry will never have a chance to prove himself. This Nodoren's power is based solely on you. Everything you do affects him to some degree. He cannot attack you here, because of Hogwarts, but he cannot attack Hogwarts because of you. When you are out and about, you are pretty much fair game, but you've never been out and about in your life."  
  
This caught Persephone's attention. "What do you mean that I've never been out and about? I've been outside loads of times. I've gone where I please whenever I feel like it. You make it sound like I'm some bird in a cage!"  
  
Dumbledore smiled slightly at the analogy. "In a sense, Persephone, you are. A very mobile cage, I grant you, but a cage just the same." He looked at her intently. "Have you ever gone somewhere without someone related to you?"  
  
She scoffed, but nodded.  
  
"And have you ever gone somewhere alone?"  
  
Again, she nodded.  
  
"But, have you ever gone somewhere without your wand?"  
  
"Of course, who do you take me for? I don't always have my wand. What about before I was old enough to get it? How else could I get around except without it?"  
  
He grinned at her in a fatherly sort of way. "Yes, but the minute you got it, don't you remember what your mother said to you? The minute your hand closed around the wand. Try to remember."  
  
She rolled her eyes at him and tried to bring back the memory. "She said..." The words caught in her throat. "She said, 'Whatever you do from now on, Pers don't leave your wand behind. A wand is the most powerful weapon a witch can have.'" She glanced up at Dumbledore. "How did you know?"  
  
He looked at her with an expression that was half thoughtful and half reminiscent. "I know because of your grandmother."  
  
Persephone stared at him incredulously. "My grandmother?!"  
  
Dumbledore laughed. "Yes, a delightful woman, your grandmother. I had the pleasure of meeting her when she attended Hogwarts. A Ravenclaw, she was. Made prefect, you know. I taught her in Transfigurations once. Anyway, the minute you were born, your sister, Europa, made the prophecy." Persephone continued to stare. "She's a Seer, you know. Your grandmother contacted me the next day. She was sure that you were the 'girl with no face.' She owled me later, the next year in fact, to say that you were a Metamorphmagus. Quite a surprise, I'm sure. Again she owled me the night that your siblings were killed." His expression darkened. "That's when we were sure that the prophecy was yours. We made sure that your parents were transferred to England, so you would be safe at Hogwarts. But, as you probably know, Cornelius Fudge and I are not on the best of terms and it took much longer than I had hoped for you to come. But come you did, eventually, and it was by pure dumb luck that you managed to get in touch with the Weasleys. A wonderful family, the lot of them." Snape made a noise that sounded somewhere between a laugh and a cough. "But then the news from your grandmother was of a sadder sort this morning. The death of your one remaining sister. It is imperative now that you stay at Hogwarts. You must be protected at all costs. The time will come, no doubt soon, that you shall have to face your enemy, but I'd prefer if I could keep an eye on you until then."  
  
Persephone, quite dumbfounded by this point, looked from Snape to Dumbledore in confusion. "But-but why is he here?" she asked, pointing at Snape. "Surely he doesn't have to be?"  
  
The sallow-skinned Potions Professor turned to her. "I have every right to be here, Ms. McCain. I am to inform you of Nodoren and the Dark Lord's intentions as they are presented to me. I know more of this predicament than you and I am to give you essential information when the times arrive. I suggest that you treat me with a bit more respect from here on out. Do I make myself clear?"  
  
Persephone glared at him. "Keep your pants on, why don't you? It's not like I'm outright disrespectful to teachers." He raised one quirky eyebrow. "At least, not in class. I'll say what I want afterwards."  
  
Dumbledore looked from one to the other with a look of amusement. "Well, now that that's cleared up, Severus, would you take Ms. McCain to the Gryffindor Tower. I daresay that she could use with a good sleep after the day's ordeals."  
  
"As you wish, Headmaster," Snape said courteously, finally tearing his gaze from the spitfire beside him. Still, as he led her out of the round office, he couldn't help but think that he had a long year ahead of him.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
A short chapter, I know. But it seemed as good a place as any to stop. Well, read and review! 


	9. A House, a Sorting, and a Sticky Situati...

I am so sorry that it's taken me so long to update, but you know how school is. So long, so boring, and so time consuming. Well, anyways, here it is. The new chapter in A Time to Remember. Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 9  
  
A House, a Sorting, and a Sticky Situation  
  
After Snape had taken her to the portrait of the "Fat Lady," as he called her, and had given her the password "Beddoflop" (after one of the Weird Sisters' new hits, of which the portrait seemed rather fond of), he gave her clear instructions that she was to wait in the common room for Professor McGonagall. Persephone gave him one last glare before stepping through the portrait hole.  
  
Persephone threw herself down onto one of the many poofy couches in a defeated manner. Negative thoughts pounded through her brain in a steady rhythm. Most tended to say that she couldn't do it or that it was too much to handle. Not even one encouraging thought managed to pass by.  
  
"Ms. McCain?" a stern voice said to her.  
  
She looked up. A tall rather capable looking woman in a very crooked pointed hat looked down at her from behind her spectacles. Her long loose robes fell in deep green waves down to her toes. The straight pointed nose reminded Persephone of some sort of bird, but the tightly coiled hair reminded her of something very sleek, like a seal or otter.  
  
"Yes?" she answered. "Who the devil are you?"  
  
The woman stiffened and gave her a small stern glare. "I'm Professor McGonagall, your Head of House. I'm supposed to show you to your room." The woman passed her with a swish of robes. "Follow me."  
  
Persephone reluctantly stood and followed her new teacher up a flight of steps into the third door up, which held a sign that plainly read "Seventh Years." The woman opened the heavy door quickly and stepped inside. Four beds with thick scarlet velvet draperies took up every side of the wide round room filled with ancient furniture and lots of medieval stonework. She looked around her in awe at the heavy wooden desks and tables, the large bureaus, the warm round stove in the middle of the room. It reminded her of a princess's room she'd heard described in a book once. It was a dream come true.  
  
"Oh, my..." she managed to get out.  
  
McGonagall looked at down at her, the glare in her eyes receding to delight. "Wonderful, isn't it? I had this very room when I was a student." She coughed and gruffed herself up a bit. "Now, you'll be staying in here with the other seventh years, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, and Hermione Granger, who I believe you already know. They won't be arriving for another three days however, so you'll have the Tower to yourself. Meals are in the Great Hall at 7:30 for breakfast, 12:30 for lunch, and 6:00 for supper. Be sure to be there on time. You'll dine at the Head Table until the school year begins. You are welcome to explore the castle, but beware of Peeves, the Poltergeist. The ghosts should be willing to give you directions to places, as well as the portraits, if you need them. I suppose that that's everything." She glanced down at Persephone again. "I'll see you at supper, which, by the way, is in two and a half hours. Good afternoon." She turned and left Persephone alone in the room.  
  
Persephone turned about in a full circle to see the room. She hurried over to the one bed that had a trunk on the end and, upon closer examination, saw that it was hers. She saw an envelope tied to the top and picked it off and opened it. It read:  
  
"Dear Persephone,  
  
Professor Snape told us that you had to leave for Hogwarts early. We understand that it's important and hope that you are all right. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron told us what Professor Snape said and we all understand. We are truly sorry. The children will be there on the first day of school and I'm sure that you'll see each other then.  
  
Our sincerest condolences,  
  
The Weasleys"  
  
As she looked once more in the thick parchment envelope, an extra piece fell out. Though this paper was much smaller and of a lesser quality, it appeared to have a more important and perhaps even longer letter on it. It was a corner of a larger piece of parchment torn off and written quickly and messily, but it was, just barely, legible.  
  
"Persephone-  
  
I heard what happened to your sister and her family. I am truly sorry. Really, this letter is very good, isn't it? That was sarcasm in case you didn't pick it up. Anyway, I had to write this quickly. Mum is writing a much better one and she's having me put it with your things, so I decided I'd write you one as well. I would still like to see you, but sooner than a few weeks. I've decided to come on the second day of school to visit. I never thought that I'd ever want to revisit school but for some reason, if you were there, I could go anywhere. Well, I'll see you then. Take care.  
  
-Percy"  
  
Persephone sniffed a bit as the tears came up into her eyes. She quickly berated herself. 'This is no time to think of either Io or of Percy. Go take a walk now before you decide to either start mooning or bawling.' She dutifully got up and stormed out of her dorm room, through the common room and out through the portrait hole.  
  
The halls were, of course, empty and Persephone began to run away down one, away from her room, away from her letters, and most importantly, away from her thoughts. She continued to run without looking, but taking comfort in the feel of cool and comforting air rushing through her air and the absolute freedom of fast movement. It wasn't until she felt as though she'd run through a thin sheet of ice that she actually stopped. She gasped and her eyes shot wide open as the chilly feeling went from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. Turning around, she saw that it was a ghost that had caused the oddly refreshing feeling.  
  
"Excuse me," she whispered to the disgruntled looking male ghost. He huffed about as he tried to straighten his intricate and delicate looking clothing, but, being a ghost, none of his primping took affect. She glanced at his flyaway hair and piercing transparent eyes before trying to introduce herself. "I'm Persephone. Who are you?"  
  
He looked at her disapprovingly. "I, as you may very well know, am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. I am the Gryffindor House ghost. I don't believe that I've ever seen you here before. Besides, you sound like a foreigner. American, I suspect," he added with just a hint of disgust.  
  
Persephone only smiled. "I am, and I go to school here now. I'm in Gryffindor." His face brightened significantly, but his eyes still showed his distrust of the American intruder.  
  
"Well, than I am glad that it is I who am her to give you my most heartfelt welcome and hopes that you shall enjoy your time here. Hogwarts is a magnificent school, as you'll very well see for yourself at the beginning of term." He started as if just realizing something. "Er, if you don't think me rude in asking, why are you here so early?"  
  
"Well, I was sent for by Dumbledore. He wanted me to come here for safety. I don't know if I ought to tell you for what just yet. If you really want to know, you should ask Dumbledore yourself. I'm sure he'll tell you."  
  
The ghost looked completely disgruntled by this answer, but made no comment. Instead, he said, "It's nearly suppertime, you know. You should make your way to the Great Hall soon, if you don't mind my saying."  
  
She stared at him. 'How long have I been running,' she wondered. "Thank you, Sir Nicholas. Could you, er, please direct me to the Great Hall?"  
  
He smirked at her in a pleasant way. "Certainly. You're very nearly there. Just take this corridor and turn right at the first place. Keep going and you'll see a pair of large doors. Just go through and you'll be in the Hall." He bowed low in front of her causing, to Persephone's astonishment, his head to fall nearly completely off of his shoulder, held on only by the small bit of skin and tissue that still clung to his neck. She took a step back. He grinned at her surprise and floated away through a wall.  
  
She carefully shook her head and took off in the direction that he had told her. After a few more minutes of running, she came into the Hall completely breathless and sweating and quite ready to eat.  
  
With her head downcast, she approached the table at the far end of the room, passing four other long tables along the way, and taking a seat between Snape and McGonagall. McGonagall gave her a bright smile, but Snape barely gave her an acknowledging glance.  
  
In a minute, the plates in front of her filled magically with food. Persephone had to fight to keep her mouth shut and not gape. As the other teachers began to chat idly, she ate like a ravenous wolf; one heaping forkful right after another. She began to catch passing glances from her teachers, but didn't notice. She'd never tasted anything so wonderful in her life. Her mother's food had been good, and Mrs. Weasley's had been marvelous, but Hogwarts food was absolutely spectacular. She ate everything in sight from roast turkey to baked potatoes to something called steak-and-kidney pie to slice after slice of hot home baked bread.  
  
"Ms. McCain?" a voice to her left said sharply. She looked up at the pointed face of her head of house.  
  
"Yes?" she managed to ask without spraying the table with crumbs.  
  
McGonagall sniffed disdainfully. "Ms. McCain, do you always eat so...violently?"  
  
Persephone looked at her in confusion. "Violently?" She looked at the fork in her hand that was piled with food and the nearly emptied plate. She colored a deep crimson. "Oh, you mean...because I'm...oh. Well, no, not usually. I just haven't eaten much today and I'm kind of hungry. I'm sorry if that's not very good table manners."  
  
Snape raised an eyebrow at her in what could have been called amusement, but was more likely disgust. A stout teacher beside him looked about ready to burst out laughing; her stringy, bush-like hair was already shaking with suppressed mirth beneath her crooked and wobbly hat. McGonagall on the other hand gave her a pursed lip smile.  
  
"Not to worry, Ms. McCain. I thought that perhaps your short time with the Weasleys had already begun to affect you. Those boys must be the messiest eaters in all of Britain."  
  
Persephone put her head down and finished her meal as cleanly as she could and excused herself from the table.  
  
On her way back to the Gryffindor Tower, she passed Sir Nicholas again and stopped to chat about her friends and their exploits during their past years in Hogwarts. She came away from him knowing more about them than she thought that even Mrs. Weasley knew. He told her everything from them defeating Voldemort numerous times, to Harry and Ginny's little after curfew exploits. Even Sir Nicholas himself couldn't hide his blush when he told Persephone of how he'd stumbled upon them in the Astronomy Tower, a vacant classroom, and even in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. As she continued walking, she tried to think of how she would have reacted in any of their positions during their countless adventures and could only imagine herself coiling into a small little ball crying her eyes out until someone came to rescue her. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to meet the man who had killed your parents face to face. All of a sudden she had a newfound respect for the boy called Harry Potter.  
  
After re-entering the Gryffindor common room and climbing the spiral stairs to her room, she collapsed down on her bed and looked out of the nearest window. The sun had barely begun to set and the deep and mellow colors of twilight still conquered the sky. Her eyes scanned down across the room, stopping to rest on the two letters that sat undisturbed atop her trunk. From her place, she could see the messy scrawl of Percy's letter and the even handwriting of Mrs. Weasley and was overcome with a feeling of homesickness as she thought of her mother, father, and brother locked up in the small and cramped flat. The tears gathered in her eyes as she thought of the brothers and sisters she had once had and she couldn't hold them back. Rivers formed on her cheeks and chin and lips as sobs racked her body.  
  
The sun set outside and the dark forest and castle grounds fell silent except for the quiet echoes of agonized cries and muffled screams of sorrow.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
The three solitary days passed terribly slow for Persephone and were filled with mandatory meals, sympathetic talks with her teachers, and hours upon hours of guilt-ridden and painful crying. By the time the first day of school arrived, Persephone was filled with happiness and excitement at the prospect of seeing her friends and, more importantly, her brother again. She'd been very disappointed, practically heartbroken, when he decided that he'd rather stay at the Ministry with their parents.  
  
She had been allowed to accompany Rubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper, to the train station to greet the arriving students. She stood beside his mountainous form quietly. She knew that the teachers were worried about her. She knew that they wondered why she didn't eat as much as she had that first night. She knew that her eyes were sunken and blank, her cheeks hollow, and her skin pale, but she didn't care enough even to Change.  
  
"Say there, Persephone, I hear that you've got yerself a brother, eh?" Hagrid rumbled from beside her.  
  
She nodded her head slightly, but didn't speak. He tried to start conversation again. "And he's gonna be a third year this term, that righ'?" Again, she nodded.  
  
After a few more questions of a similar nature and similar responses, he gave up and took to waiting quietly with her.  
  
Barely three silent minutes had passed when a train whistle broke the uncomfortable quiet. Persephone turned to see the train coming and granted herself a small smile. Not quite a minute later, the train slowed and stopped with a puff of steam in front of them. The doors immediately opened and the once practically empty platform was suddenly crowded with students from every race, age, and house. Persephone found herself overwhelmed at the sight of so many new faces, but a familiar one soon came off the train only to tower above everyone else and look from side to side. When the redheaded boy saw her, he waved frantically at her.  
  
"Persephone!" he cried, his voice somehow traveling over all the others. She gave him a shaky grin as he ran over with four shorter people in tow. Coming to stop in front of her, she was greeted by the smiling faces of Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione. Though she was quite glad to see them, it was the fifth face that caused the tears to rise into her eyes.  
  
"Archie," she whispered. In a swift movement, she had him wrapped up in her arms and tears of grief, happiness, and relief fell down her face like rain.  
  
'My brother,' she thought to herself. 'My brother.' The boy in her arms was shaking with sobs as well. Her fingers stroked his straight black hair frantically and his hands gripped the back of her school robes so tightly that she thought they might rip. After she had let him go, she looked into his face. It was thinner than she remembered, and the eyes seemed bigger, but that may have been because he was so scrawny. Deep circles fell to the tops of his cheekbones and his small frame (inherited from their mother) seemed to quaver ever so slightly. Still, Persephone couldn't imagine a more lovely sight.  
  
She turned to her friends. "Thank you," she said, barely audible. "I don't know what I would've..." She sniffed as more tears reached her eyes. Four pairs of arms wrapped about her in a very awkward and completely uncomfortable embrace, but that hardly mattered to Persephone. Once they let her go, she led them to the carriage she had taken up and had reserved for them. They piled in and once more, she could only think of how happy she was that she had them all.  
  
"I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch," she said to them. "I haven't left Gryffindor Tower for anything more than mealtimes. I should have owled you all the minute I got here." She took in a delicate and shuddering breath. "But things have been so, you know..."  
  
She was saved from further explanation by a warm hand on her shoulder. She smiled at Hermione and changed the subject. "So, how's the family been?"  
  
Ron grinned. "Pretty good, actually. You wouldn't believe the trouble Fred and George got into with their joke shop ideas. They decided that they'd test this new candy on Mum. She couldn't stop singing nursery rhymes for an hour. They figure that they'll call it 'Little Ditty Dandies' or something like that." He stopped to laugh along with the rest of the carriage riders. "You should've heard her. 'Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb!'"  
  
After Persephone's laughter had died down, she noticed Ron looking at her mischievously. She looked at him uncertainly. "What? Have I got something in my teeth?" She rubbed her teeth with her finger harshly.  
  
He laughs. "No, no. I was just thinking about another of my brothers." He glanced at Harry quickly, and Persephone saw that he, too, had a rather frightening smile on his face. "You see," Ron said, turning back to Persephone. "Harry told me this rather interesting story. He heard it from Bill, my ever reliable brother. I hear that you and Perfect Percy have indulged in a little, shall we say, 'extracurricular activities?'"  
  
Persephone didn't know whether to gape, cry, or laugh. Her mother had used those very words when she'd been under the impression that Persephone had liked Percy (which, and Persephone had to give her mother credit, had been true but Persephone hadn't known it). She was stunned to think that Bill would betray their confidence like that. And she was terrified of what everyone would think of her, most importantly, her brother, mother and father.  
  
"Where did you--how did you--when did he?" She couldn't manage to finish any of her sentences, but Ron seemed to get the gist of it.  
  
"Actually, Bill didn't mean to let it slip. He'd been teasing Percy about something in Percy's room and Harry happened to walk by at just the right time and heard him say, 'And Persephone is practically head over heels for you, Perc, and you spend your time writing her letters instead of snogging! It's incredible! It's hard to believe you're a Weasley! If it had been me, I'd have been all over her after that first kiss. But no! You take the gentlemanly approach! You two kiss and instead of kissing her again, you write her letters! Amazing!'" He turned to Harry. "I got that right, didn't I?"  
  
Harry nodded. "But you did forget to tell her about what happened next. Go on."  
  
Ron looked back at Persephone. "Then Harry stormed on in and scared the living daylights out of them." He closed his eyes as if imagining the look of shock on his elder brothers' faces. "Of course, they made him promise not to tell anyone, but they should've known that he'd tell his best mates. Pretty stupid of them to be talking about it in the first place, really." He gave Persephone a skeptical look. "Is it true? I don't think that you'd kiss anyone on first sight, least of all Percy."  
  
Persephone turned a bright red color similar to that of a ripe strawberry. "Er..." she managed to say.  
  
All four of her friends made different noises at her not-quite confession. Harry sounded surprised, as though he hadn't quite believed the story himself. Ron sounded completely and utterly disgusted, as though he had just found out that his brother was a frog. Ginny seemed triumphant and terribly happy (Persephone supposed that Percy was one of her more favorite brothers). Hermione sounded as though she had been expecting it all along, as though it were the natural way of things. Only Archie seemed totally confused about everything and Persephone had no intention of explaining it in a way that he could understand.  
  
Luckily, just at the moment when Persephone would be expected to explain, they reached the castle. Persephone gratefully hopped out and rushed them into the Great Hall where there would be too much noise for them to hold a proper conversation.  
  
After seeing her brother safely to the Hufflepuff table, she joined her friends at the Gryffindor one. She chatted lightly with Hermione (who introduced her to Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, their dorm mates) as she waited for Dumbledore to start the Sorting and serve dinner.  
  
Before Persephone could question Hermione about the grading system ("What the heck does a 'T' mean?") Dumbledore stood at his spot at the Head Table.  
  
"Professor McGonagall?" he called, looking past the House tables to the large double doors at the end of the Hall. "Are you ready?"  
  
The grim-faced Gryffindor Head of House walked briskly to the front of the Hall with a gaggle of first year students doing their best to keep up in her wake. She stopped beside a stool that Persephone hadn't noticed. A dirty and dingy hat covered in rips sat atop it. Persephone looked at in curiosity as Professor McGonagall began to speak.  
  
"As I call your names," she said to the first years, "You will come and sit down and place the Sorting Hat on your head. It will call out your house. Either Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, or," she sneered ever so slightly, "Slytherin. Your House will be like your family for your next seven years here. Good behavior will earn you points while bad behavior will take them away. At the end of the year, the House with the most points will win the House cup, a great honor." She glanced at the Sorting Hat expectantly.  
  
A wide rip by the brim opened up like some strange cloth mouth and a song poured out.  
  
"I may not be very pretty  
  
I may not be too clean  
  
But I can see inside your head  
  
And, there's a lot to be seen!  
  
I can say which house you ought to be  
  
And which one you ought not  
  
I can see all the good inside you  
  
And, unfortunately, all the rot.  
  
You may like to be in Hufflepuff  
  
Where the people are kind and true  
  
And never say a harsh word  
  
But would rather be friends with you.  
  
Or maybe you belong in Slytherin  
  
With all the cunning and the drive  
  
Where ambition is number one  
  
And power keeps you alive.  
  
Or perhaps it's in Gryffindor  
  
Where you'll find your courage lies  
  
With the strong of heart and daring  
  
And the brave you have your ties.  
  
Or suppose it's in Ravenclaw  
  
With the witty and the smart  
  
That your intelligence is complete  
  
And intellect is an art.  
  
Whether you're a little witchy  
  
Or a little wizard-man  
  
I shall find your true calling  
  
And let you try your hand.  
  
You'll see the school through different eyes  
  
Through sly Slytherin and brave Gryffindor,  
  
Just Ravenclaw and kind Hufflepuff  
  
And remember it forevermore!"  
  
Everyone applauded politely for the singing hat, but Persephone was too dumbfounded to speak properly. She'd never seen a hat sing before and was at a loss for things to say. Instead she gaped and stared at the hat as though it were alive, which it very well may be.  
  
Professor McGonagall unrolled her parchment and began to call names. "Ackleby, Freda!" A timid and shaking little girl approached the stool and carefully placed the large hat over her blond head. After barely three seconds time it called out "HUFFLEPUFF!" in a distinct voice. The girl walked dazedly to her table amidst cheers.  
  
"Amperson, Nathaniel!"  
  
A surprisingly tall and stocky looking boy sat down and jammed the hat onto his thick looking head. "SLYTHERIN!" the hat finally called after a minute or two.  
  
Persephone watched the sorting with interest and cheered loudly when "Bundle, Mathilde!" became the first Gryffindor. She clapped lightly for "Drebben, Kendrick!" when he became a Ravenclaw after a record-breaking thirty minutes on the stool, during which he looked about to faint.  
  
Finally, after "Zurill, Vanessa!" became a Hufflepuff, the Sorting was complete and McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat and stool and took them from the Hall. Dumbledore stood again with a merry twinkle in his eye.  
  
"Now that our newest pupils have been Sorted into their houses, I say...Let's eat!"  
  
Everyone cheered loudly as the plates had their food magically appear in front of them. All the first years oohed and ahhed but began to eat before they had even finished their expressions of awe. Persephone, too, ate like there was no tomorrow. She hadn't realized how hungry she'd been for the past couple days until just at that moment. She also noticed that when she put her mind to it, she could eat just as messily and fast as the boys. Hermione noticed too and commented on it.  
  
"Do you always eat like there's a ten week famine on the way?" she said to Persephone with her nose all crinkled up.  
  
Persephone looked at her sheepishly. "Shorry," she said through a mouthful of food. "Jusht 'ungry, I guesh." She continued to shove the food into her mouth like it were coal and she was a furnace on a steam engine.  
  
After nearly an hour of dinner, the plates finally magicked themselves clean and everyone stood up from the tables and headed to their common rooms, chatting the whole way.  
  
Persephone dutifully followed Ron and Harry (Hermione, as Head Girl, had to take the first years on a little tour first) out of the Great Hall towards Gryffindor Tower. She didn't think they'd really noticed her and she did want to listen to them. Maybe they would talk about something interesting, like Quidditch or one of their adventures. She strained her ears carefully to listen.  
  
"I dunno, Harry," Ron said doubtfully. "The plan seems a little dodgy to me. What if it backfires? We could end up with not one or two, but three people angry with us. You know that Hermione won't like it." He shook his head. "I can see that little vein in her forehead throbbing already."  
  
Harry laughed. "Oh, come on, Ron. It's not all that bad. And how could it end badly? We're two very talented wizards you know."  
  
Ron wasn't convinced. "Yeah, but so is he, and she's not all that bad either, come to think of it."  
  
"Don't be such a wet mop, Ron. It's just a little trick. No one will be any the wiser. It's so simple, and foolproof, and it's bound to work like a charm!"  
  
Persephone, finding that she was terribly curious at this point, decided to interrupt. "Who're you playing the trick on, guys?"  
  
They turned around abruptly. Persephone looked at their shocked faces with amusement.  
  
"Er...no one, Persephone," Harry said quickly.  
  
"Yeah, that's right, no one," Ron continued. "Not to worry, Perisifny--I mean, Perisifinee--no, that's not right--what is it again?"  
  
Persephone laughed at him. "It's Persephone, Ron." He nodded and looked awful sheepish. "So, do I know this 'no one'?"  
  
Harry's face paled somewhat. "No, no you don't."  
  
Persephone gave them one last smile and turned around to go to the common room. As she was leaving them, she heard Ron say, "Can't we pick friends with normal names? Hermione, Parvati, Seamus, Persephone. Geez, what I wouldn't give for a Jack and a Jill..."  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
The next day, a Thursday, passed by with very little to talk about. Persephone attended her first Potions lesson, her first Arithmancy lesson, and her first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. And, she was happy to find, she had very little homework, except for a two parchment essay on the benefits and downfalls of Immunizing Potion, which was supposed protect a person from most diseases ranging from simple Kneazle Pox and all the way to Fire-breathing Fever.  
  
Friday, however, was a completely different story.  
  
The lessons passed easily enough, of course (Herbology, Divination, Transfiguration, and Astronomy was scheduled for later in the night), but the minute the last class had been dismissed, and Persephone was on her way to the Gryffindor common room to put away her books and things, she was confronted with a most unusual request from a most unusual person.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you, miss," a small creature that came no higher than her knee said in a squeaky voice. Persephone stared at the thing in surprise. Its large eyes were so hopeful and uncertain that she had just been about to reach out and pet it before she realized what she was doing.  
  
"Who--Who are you?" she asked it instead.  
  
The being looked up at her in shock. "I--I is Dobby, miss. I is sent by Professor Dumbledore to come and get you, miss. He says to take you to his office, miss." He held out one long fingered and thin hand as if beckoning her to follow him. "Come along, miss."  
  
Persephone gave him one last skeptical look then followed him. He led her quite quickly to the escalator-slash-gargoyle and said the password to it. Persephone was very amused at the new password.  
  
"Little Ditty Dandies."  
  
With a quick short bow, Dobby scuttled off away from her, leaving her by herself as the gargoyle activated and spun around to reveal its escalator- like steps. She carefully stood on one and fretted the whole trip to the top. Had something else happened to her family? Had Nodoren found out how to get to her? Was she in danger? Was everyone in danger?  
  
Her heart rate quickened with each agonizingly slow foot up. She could feel the adrenaline and agonizing anticipation making its way from her brain, to her heart, to her stomach, and finally to her toes. When the ride was finally over, she all but ran to Dumbledore's door and thrust it open without even so much as a knock.  
  
"Professor," she called, close to tears. "What's happened? Are my mom and dad okay? Is he here? Is Nodoren here?"  
  
Dumbledore stared at her in surprise. "Whatever gave you that idea, child?" His voice was even more surprised than his face.  
  
Persephone looked at him carefully. "Well, I assumed something had happened. You sent Dobby to get me. I thought that maybe..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish her thought.  
  
He chuckled at her. "Nothing like that has happened, my dear." He looked over beside his desk. "But something has indeed happened."  
  
Persephone followed his gaze. A tall figure stood up quickly; a tall redheaded figure. As soon as Persephone saw who it was, she flung herself at him.  
  
"Percy!"  
  
He patted her head uncertainly and tried to disentangle himself from her. She finally did let go and looked up at him a little more adoringly than Percy could easily stomach.  
  
"I didn't think you'd come," she whispered and before he had a chance to respond, she claimed his lips in a frantic kiss. He mindlessly wrapped his arms about her and pulled her up on her tiptoes to kiss her more fiercely and passionately than he ever had before.  
  
It wasn't until a slight cough interrupted them nearly three minutes later that they let go of each other, gasping from loss of breath.  
  
They turned to Dumbledore in embarrassment, and were therefore quite perplexed to see his bright blue eyes twinkling more than usual. "I take it that you'll want to spend the rest of the evening in each other's company, but I do have to talk to you a bit about the, er, rules that we have here at Hogwarts concerning, uh, extracurricular activities." Again, Persephone didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
A few minutes later, Persephone and Percy came out from the gargoyles magical staircases with equal looks of disgust on their faces.  
  
"It's one thing being told about the birds and the bees by your parents," Persephone whispered quietly so that only Percy could hear her. "But it's way more gross and uncomfortable when it's the headmaster."  
  
Percy gave a sharp and short laugh. Then his face blanched at the memory of Dumbledore's "talk." 'More like a goddamned lecture, if you ask me,' he thought to himself.  
  
They made their way towards the Gryffindor common room in companionable silence. After they had climbed through the portrait hole, they were bombarded from all sides by two Weasleys, Harry, and a giggling Hermione.  
  
"Percy, you have to come and see this!" Ginny shouted at her older brother as she hugged his arm.  
  
Harry chimed in. "Yes, you too, Persephone! It's an absolute--an absolute- -well, I don't know what exactly, but it's an absolute something."  
  
Then, as quickly as they had gotten into the common room, they were ushered back out again.  
  
The four Gryffindors led them down out through the large front doors and over the grounds to the front gate and road that led to the nearby Hogsmeade. Despite Percy's protests and Hermione voicing out her concerns of willingly breaking some of the most important school rules, they were still rushed onward.  
  
Once in Hogsmeade, they were led straight down to the end of the lane and stopped in front of a very dilapidated building that looked as though it had been built perhaps over a hundred years ago.  
  
Persephone stared at it completely unimpressed. "Yes, it's an old house. So what?"  
  
Percy, too, was uncomprehending. "It's the old Shrieking Shack, Harry. What's so special about it?"  
  
Hermione and Ginny, now giggling helplessly, looked up to Harry to explain.  
  
"Inside, Percy," he said breathlessly. "You won't believe what we found inside. You have got to see." He started pulling them to the front door of the old house. Persephone looked up at Percy in complete confusion.  
  
"Um, Harry, in case you don't remember, all the doors are sealed shut." Percy had an expression somewhere in between anger and amusement at the prospect of being taken all the way up to the Shrieking Shack without his consent, when, he knew, he would much rather be spending his weekend with Persephone in the Astronomy Tower if he could.  
  
Ron waved his comment aside. "You really don't think that Hermione's our friend for nothing, do you?" Hermione interrupted with a sharp "Hey!" Ron glanced at her impishly. "Just kidding, Hermione. Actually, Perc, she figured out how to get the front door open. Just a simple Opening Charm. Obvious and easy, but, you know what they say. The best place to hide something is in plain view, you know."  
  
They reached the doors and Harry brusquely pushed them open and shoved Persephone and Percy inside. As soon as Percy had regained his composure, he turned around to face the four young students. "All right, so where's this special thing that you wanted so desperately to show us?"  
  
Harry grinned in an almost demonic manner. "Nothing, really," he answered. "We just thought it was a good place to lock you two up. Broom closets are getting really hard to reserve nowadays, you know." And with that, the door was shut in their faces.  
  
As Persephone ran beside Percy to open the door before they had a chance to lock them in, she heard the distinct voice of Hermione and the unmistakable incantation to a Locking Spell, but not the kind that could be averted with a simple "Alohomora," but the kind that was timed. And, unless Persephone was much mistaken, that certain incantation was good for nearly twenty hours.  
  
Persephone hit the door with a frustrated cry. She could still hear the laughter of her so-called friends from behind the door and she didn't feel the least bit bad for cursing at them with some of the foulest language known to man.  
  
Percy, too, was indulging in some completely out of character words at his siblings and their friends. But, as they soon realized they were being insulted, they had left. Persephone, after beating on the door a few more times in anger, settled herself in a battered and scratched up chair that happened to be in the corner. Percy took to pacing across the room.  
  
"When I get my hands on them..." Persephone managed to distinguish from his constant mutterings. She laughed weakly and looked up at the ceiling in defeat. She couldn't help but imagine what SHE would do if she ever got her hands on them...  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
A few undistinguishable hours later after night had fallen; Persephone awoke with a start from her uncomfortable position on the chair. She looked around dazedly, looking around for what could have caused the cracking noises that woke her up. She saw Percy lying spread-eagled out on the floor snoring softly, and the pitter-patter of rat's feet, but nothing that could have made a CRACK noise.  
  
She stood up and stretched. It felt good to get all the cricks in her back sorted out. Then she started walking towards Percy. She knelt down and carefully shook his shoulders. He woke up quickly and looked about him as dazedly as Persephone had only moments before. Eventually he saw Persephone and sat up quickly. "What is it?" he managed to say through an ear-splitting yawn.  
  
"Did you hear something?"  
  
He looked at her with pursed lips. "If I heard something, do you think I'd still be sleeping?"  
  
She glared and shoved him on the shoulder. She was about to tell him off when she heard footsteps approaching the door. "Do you hear that?" she hissed at him.  
  
He nodded and motioned for her to be quiet. "It can't be Ron or Harry," he mouthed to her in little more than a breath. "It's past two o'clock in the morning." Persephone felt something like an ice hand grip her heart as it leapt into her throat.  
  
"Who could it be, then?" she whispered back.  
  
He shrugged and motioned for her to be quiet again. They heard the sound of a voice next. A male voice.  
  
"This is where he said to meet, MacNair," the man's gracefully elegant voice said. Persephone noticed Percy stiffen. "The Dark Lord has his own reasons for choosing meeting places. It's not for us to question him." Now Persephone stiffened as well.  
  
"I just don't understand why we had to come to the Shrieking Shack," a gravelly voice, MacNair, said in response to the other. "This place gives me the willies. Don't you remember the stories, Lucius? The hauntings?"  
  
"Of course I do," Lucius snapped. "But he says that he wants us to meet someone. Some fellow or other by the name of--oh, damn. What was his name again?"  
  
Persephone looked at Percy anxiously, but he was shaking so badly that she didn't expect much in the way of comfort or explanation from him.  
  
"It started with an 'N,' I think," Lucius continued. "Nolorahn, or something. Nooren, Nodrean, Noreden, no, but that's close." He paused for a minute. "Nodoren. That's it. We're meeting a Nodoren."  
  
Persephone nearly fainted from the shock of the name. Nodoren. He was coming here. He would be here soon. She clung to Percy's arm so tightly that he had to pry her fingers off of him.  
  
"Now, let's go inside," Lucius said. "The others should be coming soon. He told us to wait inside for them."  
  
Percy jumped up and grabbed Persephone around the waist. He hoisted her onto his shoulder and sprinted up the narrow staircase into a small bedroom on the second floor as quietly as he possibly could. He threw her down onto the old moth-eaten bed and closed the door to the room behind him quickly but silently. He cast a complicated Locking Spell on it of a different variety than Hermione had used. It was of the kind that would only unlock to a spell cast by the person who locked it. He walked over to Persephone and sat beside her on the bed.  
  
He grabbed her hand in one of his and held it tightly. She could feel him shaking again and wondered what he was thinking. 'Probably wishing that he were anywhere but here,' she surmised. And she couldn't say that she blamed him because she was wishing for the exact same thing with all of her might. Not to mention that she was terribly afraid of being so close to the man who had killed her family. And also the fact that he was the same man who was trying to kill her. All in all, she would have been much happier to be in Hell as long as Nodoren wouldn't be there with her.  
  
They sat as still as statues and listened to Lucius and MacNair open the door downstairs noisily and begin to talk about some of the more recent Dark Revels they'd attended. Persephone leaned against Percy and hid her head in his shoulder to muffle the sob that she couldn't contain. He wrapped one arm about her tightly and pulled her closer to him. They stayed in that position for some time; listening to the voices downstairs, waiting for new ones to join them, and try to think of ways to get out of the sticky situation that they had just found themselves in.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Wow, another chapter and another ending. I know that it's kind of a mean place to stop, but this is the longest chapter I've written so far and I thought it seemed an okay place. Anywho, don't forget to review! 


	10. A Dark Lord, a Dark Plan, and an Unexpec...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I don't update as quickly as I should like, but you know how high school life is... Anyway, look! Quick updating on my part!  
  
Disclaimer: I've been forgetting this recently, but I think you know it anyway. All to J.K. Rowling except plot and the McCain family. They're mine!  
  
Chapter 10  
  
A Dark Lord, a Dark Plan, and an Unexpected Dark Man  
  
Persephone sat as still as stone while she and Percy waited for either discovery and almost certain death or rescue and relief. She could still hear the smooth voice of Lucius and the scratchy throaty one of MacNair, but as of yet, no more had come.  
  
She leaned in closely to Percy and whispered softly in his ear. "How'd they get past Hermione's locking charm?"  
  
He turned to her with a look of utter surprise and bewilderment. "I don't know. I'd suppose that it had something to do with the Dark Arts." He grabbed her tightly around the shoulders once more and pulled her shaking body close to his.  
  
Then, just as they had suspected, there was a loud CRACK downstairs and a new voice joined the others.  
  
"Ah, Lucius," it said gruffly. "Glad to see someone's here. No sign of the Dark Lord yet, then, eh?"  
  
"Nah," replied the gravelly voice of MacNair. "Not seen hide nor hair of anyone but you."  
  
The new arrival harrumphed in annoyance. "Damn. We were summoned nearly ten minutes ago. What in hell could be taking everyone so damned long?"  
  
Before either Lucius or MacNair had the chance to respond, a chorus of loud CRACKs sounded out through the silence and soon they were all greeting each other like old friends. Persephone caught the names Avery, Lestrange, and Nott amidst the entire hubbub and resolved to commit them to memory so that she might recall them later and report them to Dumbledore.  
  
They had only been chatting for little more than a minute when a few more CRACKs, these louder than the ones that came before, sounded out through the inane babble. The idle prattle stopped immediately as a cold breeze seemed to blow up to the door eerily.  
  
A long, loud click of a boot echoed through the desolate emptiness that was the Shrieking Shack and Persephone could feel the foreboding that increased with each step. If she strained hard enough, she could even hear the sharp intakes of breath as the footsteps passed one and then another member of the little meeting. The feet stopped at one end of the room, then walked back to the other end to pass all of the attendees once again. Finally, after a painful amount of time, they stopped and Persephone heard the most high and evil voice she ever thought possible and grimaced as it sent unwilling shivers up and down her spine to keep the rapidly pumping adrenaline company.  
  
"My faithful Death Eaters," the voice said slowly. "It has been too long since our last meeting, but I was, shall we say, a little detained by Potter once again. I must say that the boy does get stronger with each passing year." A grumble passed through the "Death Eaters" (as the man had called them), but the voice continued. "That is why this year shall be his last. We must rid ourselves of the horror that is Harry Potter and bring about a new reign over the Wizarding World!" A cheer rose through the company like a wild fire. Persephone felt Percy stiffen and shiver beside her. It wasn't for another moment that she realized that she was shaking just as badly.  
  
As the cheers died down, she could hear the shuffle of heavy and uncertain feet. "B-but, My Lord, how are we to do that? I-I mean, we haven't got any more leads on him, or Dumbledore, or Lupin, or any of the Order. It's as though we've lost all ways in."  
  
Persephone listened for an answer, but for the longest stretch of time there was only silence. And then a laugh, a high, screechy laugh that reminded her of claws on a chalkboard. It crescendo-ed from a quiet chuckle to full-blown hysteria as Persephone felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up.  
  
"Wormtail! You insignificant fool! I couldn't care less about the damn order!" His laughter slowed. "I've found myself a new angle and, I feel I must say it, it's far better than any plan that either you or I have hatched up yet." His voice lowered conspiratorially. "You see, I have decided to hit him where it will hurt him the most. I'm going to enlist the help of his friends." Once again, the mumbling of the Death Eaters grew to a deafening high.  
  
"Silence!" the leading voice cried. The others stopped as quickly as though someone had simply pressed the mute button on them. "I have here an accomplice who I am sure will be most useful in this new plot of mine. Nodoren, if it isn't too much trouble?" He asked the question in a tone that made it seem more command than request.  
  
She heard loud footsteps approach the first man and she began to tremble uncontrollably. "My Lord, although I do have a most valuable place by your side, it is not only for the purification of the Wizarding race that I have joined you. I am to stop a most...unseemly event from taking place. A friend of Potter's, a Persephone McCain by name, is who I intend to control. And, quite coincidentally, she happens to be the one person who I must destroy, just as you must destroy the Potter boy. It seems that we both have had unfortunate luck in the realm of prophecies, isn't it, Tom, old lad?" A collective gasp took over the Death Eaters. Voldemort, however, seemed entirely amused.  
  
"Ah, Paul, you and I have far too much in common," he chuckled. "The only difference is that I've gotten myself much more widely known than you have, old friend. All of Europe fears me and my name, but you've only got yourself America and a fair chunk of Canada under your thumb. Still, you are entirely right. This whole prophecy bit is ridiculous. That must be the first thing to go after the Mudbloods. This entire stupid obsession with the future and fortunes and crystal balls; it's all complete and utter hogwash." The group tittered nervously.  
  
"Anyway," Voldemort continued flippantly. "It's not as though I have reason to keep up the silly tradition. Once I gain power, nothing will be able to stop me. Now, Paul, continue with your plan. And, perhaps, could you give my faithful followers a little background on the subject?"  
  
The deep throaty voice of Nodoren cleared and began. "Well, as you know, Tom, I have a bit of a prophecy problem concerning this Persephone. It says that she'll either kill me, thus ending my reign, or I shall kill her along with everyone. So, I go over to her house one night a little over a decade ago to snatch her up and take her away, but I find that I'm confronted by her rather large family. Of course, I knew that they would be there and I came adequately prepared, but it seems that she was out on a little shopping excursion with her folks and thus I was unable to kill her. I did, however, dispose of her brothers and her sisters." His voice caught a little bit on the word "sisters", but Persephone doubted that anyone except for herself caught it. "So, I sort of lost track of her after that. It seems that her family kept a good watch on her and placed some sort of Disorienting Enchantment on her. If I ever got close, then the spell that her parents kept putting on her would fend me off. I'd forget what I was looking for for nearly a week. Then she got her wand and they put some sort of Repelling Enchantment on it, focusing it specifically for me and I couldn't get any closer to her than ten feet when she had her wand with her. Her mother made doubly sure of that. Then, just about a week ago actually, I thought I had found her finally. But it was only her remaining sister. So, I killed her after I extracted some rather useful information. She told me that Persephone was in England and was to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The only logical course of action was to follow. So, here I am with you lovely chaps."  
  
Persephone felt tears rolling down her cheeks in torrents as she gripped Percy's shoulder so tightly that he hissed through his teeth in pain. She let go quickly, but only gripped the edge of the bed instead.  
  
"Now I plan on going to her little flat in Muggle London and grab her away. If she isn't there, then I'll infiltrate Hogwarts. I'm quite good at disguises, you know. They don't call me the Man-Without-A-Face for nothing. I'll get her and bring her over and do a little...convincing...and get her to betray her little Potter friend and there you go."  
  
"It sounds too simple, Nodoren," a snide silky voice said icily. "How can you expect her to take so kindly to you after what you've done to her family?"  
  
Nodoren laughed. "Ah, that is quite funny. Severus, isn't it? Well, Severus, I have persuasive ways that are quite up to the challenge. If she doesn't take kindly to them, then there's always the old 'Threat to the Family.' That girl puts far too much value on them. When do parents ever come in handy in the scheme of things? I'll just kill them to get them out of the way, grab her, and tell her they're alive to force her into my way of thinking. It's quite simple, yes, but effective."  
  
"But--"  
  
Persephone couldn't hear the response that was made. Her head was spinning on her shoulders and she couldn't seem to keep her balance even though she was sitting down quite comfortably given the situations. She wobbled precariously and fell of the edge of the bed with a loud THUMP.  
  
The noise downstairs stopped. She stood up quickly, quite ashamed with herself, and frightened too, as Percy rushed over to grab her. She could hear him cursing to himself as he put his hands on each of her shoulders and rushed her to the far side of the room.  
  
Persephone could feel her heart racing and was surprised that no sound issued from the floor below. She cowered on the floor beside Percy. His legs and arms and body were wrapped around her to protect her, but she knew that if they were indeed in danger of being discovered, then they would be both be dead where they sat.  
  
Finally, after what seemed like hours but was in fact mere seconds, Persephone heard voices.  
  
"What was that?" Voldemort cried. For the first time in her life, Persephone wished that Percy hadn't come to visit her. "Go, now! See what's there and destroy it!"  
  
A scurry of footsteps like rats made the way for the staircase. She could feel her stomach tying and untying itself in knots and her heart flop around in her throat.  
  
"I'll check," said one drawling voice smoothly. Whoever it was must have demanded some sort of power, because they were unchallenged. Deliberately slow steps made their way up the stairs. With each clunk of a boot, Persephone felt a greater and greater sense of dread. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. They were closer now. She could almost see a thin hand grasping a wand in grim determination. She could almost feel the strong arms lifting her from the ground harshly to do unspeakable things to her. She could almost smell death. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Only a little further now. She held on to Percy tightly and he returned the comforting favor. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Only a few more steps now. They were almost there. Almost... Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. She kept her eyes focused on the brass doorknob, willing herself to be brave like her sister and not let her tears fall. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. The footsteps stopped. She could hear the creaking of the moldy floorboards, she could smell the dust that he had stirred with his walking, bittersweet and old and dead. The doorknob began to move ever so slightly. A quarter inch, another, and then...it stopped. Inwardly, Persephone thanked Percy for his magical abilities.  
  
But the man was not so easily deterred. A muttered "Alohomora" reached her ears, but, just as both she and Percy knew, it didn't work. The man grumbled and a loud explosion blasted the door from its hinges. Persephone jumped in fear and an almost grisly anticipation. A huge cloud of dust and grime swooshed into the room. She coughed and fought the urge to stand up and run from the room. She held tightly to Percy and waited for the dust to settle. As it did, she saw a tall lean figure in black robes appear. He had large feet; long legs covered in layers of black cloth, and long porcelain white fingers attached to long thin arms. A short ebony wand was gripped in one thin hand. Scrawny shoulders appeared beneath a long muscular neck. Straight black hair fell in greasy locks down to his shoulders. Wait. Greasy? A large hooked nose appeared over a pair of smirking lips and between two bushy eyebrows and small hawk-like beady black eyes. Persephone stared at him in disbelief, trying to find her voice. Percy found his first.  
  
He whispered out loud with a feeling that logged in somewhere between pure shock and great relief. "Snape?"  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Wow. Short and sweet. Oh well, I did do it rather quickly. Well, review please! 


	11. A Rescue and a Portkey

Ok, Ok, Ok, I know. It has been waaaaaay too long, but you know how it is with holidays, reports, homework, weekends away from home, and, most dreaded of all, school. All that and more has kept me busier than a bee and hasn't given me much time to write, but I like to think that I'm getting back into the writing swing of things. Well, I guess we'll see. Anyways, here's the next chapter.  
  
Disclaimer: Come on, you guys know the drill. If I were the owner of Harry Potter, why in the world would I be writing fanfiction on it? I do, however, claim the plot, the McCain family, and sorta Nodoren for my own.  
  
Chapter 11  
  
A Rescue and a Portkey  
  
"Snape?"  
  
Never had a word made Persephone so happy before. She jumped up from her cowering position on the floor and, to the surprise of both Percy and Snape, wrapped her professor in a very tight and very relieved embrace. She was so happy that she could hardly speak and her companions were too dumbfounded to say anything.  
  
Eventually, though, Snape found it necessary to disengage. He pried her arms from about his waist in something akin to disgust. She was too relieved and ecstatic to care and she only gripped his arm instead.  
  
"Oh, Professor, you've come to help us, haven't you?" she breathed shakily as the adrenaline in her body stopped pumping and settled into her tingling toes.  
  
He turned down to look at her with wide eyes. "Save you?" he hissed. "Dammit, I didn't even know that the two of you were here." He began pacing about the room and cursing under his breath. "Damn, damn, damn. Shit, shit, shit. Damn, damn, damn." A constant cycle as he continued to walk restlessly about.  
  
He whipped around abruptly to glare at them. "I didn't even know the two of you were here." He grabbed Percy by the arms roughly and gave him a set of the evil eyes. "What the HELL do you think you're doing here?" he snarled at him. He let go of Percy rather quickly only to turn Persephone and grab her so tightly about her shoulders that she was lifted on to her tip toes. "And YOU! It's not a Hogsmeade weekend, and even if it was you would be out way past curfew. What the hell are YOU doing here?!" He shook her harshly. She could feel her teeth chatter and hear the bones in her neck pop as her head bobbed around.  
  
Percy grabbed Snape's arm and with a well-placed squeeze forced him to drop Persephone. She fell to the floor with a crash that was anything but graceful. As she gathered her wits, she could hear Percy chastising Snape while including questions on how to escape and a quick recap of events in between.  
  
"Leave her alone, she's just a girl. How are we supposed to get out of here anyway? And you should be a little gentler with her. It's not her fault that we're stuck in this God forsaken place. And I can't apparate out. I tried earlier, but the Locking Charm was too strong. And if you want to shake out your frustrations on someone, I suggest my brother and sister, Harry, and Hermione. They're the ones to blame for our little predicament. Really, someone ought to ban Hermione from the library. She's way too advanced for a witch her age. She placed the Locking Charm on the Shack and I haven't the faintest idea how to get past it. And how in the hell are we supposed to? Somehow your little Death Eater friends managed it, but I'm not as well versed in the Dark Arts as you and it's all hopeless. And I haven't a clue what to do."  
  
The last few sentences of his tirade were unsettled and shaky and quiet. Persephone could feel his hopelessness and his despair in the thick dust- ridden air. Had she the strength and the will, she would have gone to him, but at the moment all she had the power to do was hold in her tears and sobs.  
  
She could hear Snape begin his restless pacing again. "I don't know," he mumbled. "I don't know how they got in, but I have a feeling that it's got something to do with the Dark Lord and his magic. But I don't see how I could get you ou--" He stopped in mid-thought. "Wait. I do know." Persephone looked up in hope.  
  
He began shuffling through his robe pockets with one of his lean hands. "I know it's here. Albus won't let me out of Hogwarts without it. Oh, damn, where could it be?" He reached into one of his numerous inner pockets and let out a quiet cry of joy. He pulled out a rather large and ugly yellow button. "Here it is!" He thrust it into one of Percy's strong and wiry hands.  
  
Percy looked at it skeptically. "Uh, Professor, what is it?"  
  
Snape looked at him sourly. "It's a portkey, Weasley," he said with his old cynical attitude returning full force. "Most people use it to get from one place to another when they either can't or don't know how to apparate. I suggest that you use it to take Ms. McCain and yourself back to Hogwarts. That's where it's set to go in case you haven't figured it out yet."  
  
Persephone got up on her feet. "You--You mean that you're giving us your only way out of here?" Even though she was in a dire situation, she didn't like the thought of leaving Snape here to possibly face his death. He looked at her with a sneer.  
  
"Ms. McCain, if you do not grab onto that portkey this instant then I will hex you."  
  
She stared at him with wide eyes that immediately teared-up as she realized that he wasn't answering so that he might ease her conscience. In a movement quicker than either Snape or Percy expected, she grabbed her crusty old Potions Professor in a tight hug and returned just as quickly to her companion's side. She placed one trembling finger on the button. She looked up as Snape held his wand high and said the activating incantation. In an instant and with an odd feeling like that of a hook behind her navel, she and Percy were gone.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
They reappeared at the gates to Hogwarts and Persephone fell to her knees in relief. She vaguely registered Percy copying her actions, but was so tired and frightened that it seemed a little hazy. As soon as she felt her heartbeat and her breathing steady she stood once again on her now still feet. She looked down at Percy and took his hand in hers and lifted him as best she could from the ground.  
  
They walked hand in hand towards the castle with heavy hearts and uneasy minds, but a happiness that encumbered their entire being.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
Shortest chapter ever, I know, but I wanted to get it out while I still could. I had to take a long break, but now I hope to be back on the ball. Well, click the little button on the bottom left corner and make me a very happy little writer! 


	12. A Few Silly Thoughts and a Developing Pl...

My goodness! Look how long it has been since I last updated, but I've been so busy with homework, family, seeing the new Lord of the Rings (was that good or what?), and writing a new story her on fanfiction (check it out on my profile). Well, here we go with the next chapter!  
  
Chapter 12  
  
A Few Silly Thoughts and a Developing Plan  
  
Though she was terribly happy to be back at Hogwarts, Persephone couldn't help but feel a bit, okay, a lot, worried about her sour new professor. He had, after all, saved her and Percy at great risk to himself. Who knows what kind of danger he could find himself in after that little escapade. She would rather not think of all the horrifying outcomes.  
  
"Percy," she whispered, hoping he wasn't too lost in his thoughts. "Do you think Snape will be all right?"  
  
He looked down at her, his eyes tired and just as worried as she knew hers must be. "I don't know Persephone, but I think we would do best to go straight to the Headmaster. I'm sure he'll know what to do."  
  
His pace quickened down the strangely quiet and empty stone halls of the large and old and a little frightening castle that was her school. His long strides were difficult for her to keep up with, but she managed through some strange will she hadn't known she'd possessed. It reminded her of those stories she'd heard of mothers who had been reported to lift up huge automobiles to save their children. The thought made her laugh. Her being mother to her sallow and hook nosed Potions Professor. Percy looked at her stiffly, obviously disapproving of her light manner in such a dire situation. She quickly sobered and continued at his pace and kept her thoughts in a more appropriate and frightening arena of death and torture.  
  
They reached the gargoyle in no time, but before they could even try to open it themselves, it was opened as though from the inside, but no one stepped out. A little confused and a lot nervously they mounted the large set of stairs and waited impatiently for it to reach the top.  
  
As soon as it had finally arrived at Dumbledore's door, Percy practically pulled it off its hinges in his eagerness to see the Headmaster. Persephone ran to keep up, but was surprised to see Dumbledore standing right before them, as though waiting. He looked at them mildly; the ever present grin and twinkle strangely absent.  
  
"Where is Severus?" he questioned seriously.  
  
Persephone looked at him strangely. She turned to Percy for help, but he was paying her no attention.  
  
"He did not accompany us, sir."  
  
Dumbledore's look became one of confusion, one that could easily have rivaled Persephone's own. "Accompany? What are you on about, my boy?"  
  
Percy sighed and opened his mouth to speak, but Persephone was quicker. "Well, you see, sir, Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided that they would play a little trick on us since they knew that we liked each other so they took us into Hogsmeade to the Shrieking Shack and, well, to make a long story short, they locked us in and so here we are, stuck in a house that no one will dare get close to and then here comes these Death Eater guys, you know, the ones that follow that Voldemort dude, and so we run upstairs to hide, but more keep coming and then the Voldemort dude himself shows up with that bastard Nodoren and me, being totally scared of this guy, I fall over and they send someone up to see what causes the racket and lucky for us it was Snape and he gave us a button which was actually a portkey and it took us back here and so here we are." Somehow, despite the rushed babble- like telling, Dumbledore understood every word perfectly.  
  
"You mean to tell me that you happened to accidentally get caught in the middle of a Death Eater meeting and Severus managed to get you out of it, but did not escape himself?"  
  
Persephone nodded fervently. "Yes, sir."  
  
Dumbledore's lips pursed together in the fiercest anger she or Percy had ever seen him in. "Confound that boy! He knows that if he ever has to use that then he ought to return. Here I am on high alert thinking that he may have had his cover blown, but he was simply playing the hero! Really, and I thought he was past all that!" He turned from them and began heading up the stairs to a door that Persephone supposed was his quarters.  
  
She looked up at Percy uncertainly. He looked back at her, equally perplexed. He turned back to his eccentric professor hesitantly. "Sir? Does this mean that we needn't worry about him anymore?"  
  
Dumbledore spun about and stared at them as though only just realizing they were there. "Oh, my poor children! You must think me a terrible old coot, now. Yes, yes, you needn't worry about Severus. He knows how to take care of himself. Really, though, I had hoped that he would have at least sent you back with a message so that I wouldn't worry so much. He is such a careless man." In the next instant he was gone, leaving the two alone and totally confused over the spitfire procession of the last minute's events.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
"You know," Persephone said to him, after a quick stop at the kitchens (which Ron and Harry had been so kind to show her) and a bit of a snack. "That was a bit anticlimactic, don't you think?"  
  
Percy, in step beside her smiled. "I know exactly what you mean. I had expected at least a frantic calling of the staff so that we might collect Snape or prepare for a battle or something, but all we got was a scolding for Snape when he wasn't even there to hear it, which sort of ruins all of the fun."  
  
She laughed softly at the thought of Snape getting a telling off as though he were a little boy, which, in turn, made the thought that she'd had earlier of her being his mother returned, making her laugh harder and even snort a bit.  
  
Soon, the two of them were laughing in the giddy manner of two who had just escaped almost certain death and were thrilled to just be alive. Finally, a passing ghost-nurse hissed at them to be quiet before she went to summon a teacher. As they sniggered, they heard the transparent matriarch whisper to herself something about "young lovers" or some other such nonsense.  
  
This rather embarrassing bit of gossip made them both think of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's plan to get them to be a bit more than friends and they both narrowed their eyes.  
  
Persephone turned to Percy and whispered a bit demonically to him as the sun just began to peak in through the windows. "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, what say you to getting back at them? I have a perfect idea that involves you, me, and a lot of magic."  
  
Percy smiled at her jovially, glad for once at how much like his twin brothers she was.  
  
~`~`~`~`~  
  
A little quick chapter, but, hey, it's a chapter. Well, if I get enough good reviews, I'll probably continue. I'm not exactly sure whether I want it to go on or not, but, eh, we'll see. Until next time! 


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